Part of Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust
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The newsletter for Trust members with an interest in heart and lung care
February 2022
Visiting Guidance UPDATE
Following a period of visiting restrictions, we are now carefully welcoming back visitors to our hospitals.
In inpatient wards, patients can now see more than one visitor per day, but can only have one visitor at the bedside. Visitors must swap outside the hospital buildings to avoid overcrowding in hospital areas.
Outpatient appointments should be attended alone unless you require a relative or carer to support you during your visit.
Please note that visiting guidance for some wards in our hospitals may vary, so please check with the nursing team on the ward before visiting.
All visitors must observe the measures we have in place to keep patients, other visitors and staff safe.
Read the visiting guidance in full here
New state of the art Diagnostic Centre opens at Royal Brompton Hospital
After nearly five years of planning, designing and building, the Royal Brompton Diagnostic Centre opened its doors to its first patients on 17 January 2022.
Construction on the multi-million-pound purpose-built diagnostic centre began in January 2020. The imaging facilities offered at Royal Brompton and Harefield provide cutting edge services to help diagnose cases of heart and lung disease. Building on this capability, the new diagnostic centre will help expand clinical services, improve patient experience and enhance research, education and training programmes for staff.
One of the first patients to enter the building was 29-year-old Daniella. Talking about her visit to the new centre, Daniella said: “I’ve been a patient at Royal Brompton since I was a baby, and I’ve always had such fantastic care from the ACHD team. It’s been a privilege to be one of the first patients at the diagnostic centre – it was a great experience.”
The diagnostic centre will also provide a permanent home for the hospital’s interventional bronchoscopy service which to date has been carried out either in theatre anaesthetic rooms or in a catheter laboratory. The dedicated bronchoscopy rooms will enable the clinical teams to see more patients over time. The bronchoscopy team was delighted to welcome their patients into the new building this week.
Consultant respiratory physician, Dr Peter George, said: “It was wonderful to welcome patients to our new, ultra-modern diagnostic centre and an honour to perform the first bronchoscopy in this world class, state of the art facility.”
The centre will be fully functional and operational later this spring.
Collaboration enables life-saving operations to go ahead
One year on from coming together in a merger, new collaboration between Royal Brompton and St Thomas’ hospitals has enabled teams carrying out life-saving cardiac surgery to work around operational pressures and prevent delays to patient treatments.
Working together, the surgical teams have now carried out several major heart operations by sharing facilities across hospitals, for patients who were originally facing delays due to a combination of operational pressures caused by the pandemic.
The patients originally due to be operated on at St Thomas’ Hospital got switched to theatres at the Royal Brompton, the first going into theatre on 13 January. All are reported to be doing well. Further operations are planned over the next few weeks.
“There is currently a tremendous pressure to operate on our cardiac surgery patients in a timely fashion. Exploiting the great strengths we have across the organisation is the key to tackling this. The strong collaboration between our surgical, anaesthetic, nursing and management teams has enabled us to treat some of the most time-critical patients,” said consultant cardiac surgeon and clinical lead at the Royal Brompton, Mario Petrou.
“Happily our new, larger, merged organisation can do more for our patients with the combined power and capacity that it now has over a greater number of operating theatres, hospitals, and cardiac teams.”
Consultant cardiac surgeon at St Thomas’ Kamran Baig said: “These are priority patients who have needed either coronary artery bypass or aortic valve operations. I’m pleased to say the procedures have gone very smoothly and the patients have had very good outcomes.
“We’ve come as a group – as surgeons, anaesthetists, scrub nurses – and we’ve interacted directly with our counterparts who have been very welcoming, accommodating and supportive. It adds a personal touch and it’s important for us to learn how things are done differently.”
To read more and watch a film about the collaboration, click here.
Royal Brompton honoured with highest accolade for cardio-oncology
Royal Brompton Hospital has been named a Gold Class Centre of Excellence by the International Cardio-Oncology Society.
In 2011, London’s Royal Brompton Hospital set up the UK’s first dedicated specialist cardio-oncology service. The mission of the service is to improve the cardiovascular health of people before, during and after cancer treatment. This reduces the risk of cancer patients developing heart problems after treatment.
Royal Brompton Hospital’s Cardio-Oncology Service is one of only six hospitals outside the US and 15 worldwide to receive GOLD status from the US-based Society, its top designation.
Dr Alexander Lyon, clinical lead for the Cardio-Oncology Service at Royal Brompton Hospital said: “Professor Stuart Rosen and I started the service from scratch in 2011, and we have since provided care to over 1500 cancer patients and survivors. We also provide education and training in cardio-oncology to many UK and international doctors who have returned to their hospitals and countries to set up cardio-oncology services.
“The service has a growing global network of hospitals around the world “where we provide support and strategic guidance, and we learn from each other for the benefit of our patients.”
Read the full story here
Joint Programme for Patient, Carer & Public Involvement in Covid-19 Recovery
Helen Bridgman, associate governor, shares her views on getting involved in an important patient and public engagement initiative.
In September 2020 I became a member of the Steering Group for the Joint Programme for Patient, Carer & Public Involvement in Covid-19 Recovery. The title in itself and the first meeting both felt daunting but even then I sensed real opportunities if I engaged fully in the programme. It felt like something I could usefully do and contribute to as an ex-Extra Corporeal Membrane Oxygenation (highly specialist life support) patient and associate governor during a long period of restricted access to the hospitals. Just by writing this article highlights to me how easy it can be to forget where we have come from and how much can be achieved.
Summary
The programme was triggered by the Covid pandemic and the need to learn from it alongside those most affected and to switch from crisis mode care to planned changes tailored to each patient. National Voices’ ‘5 Principles for the next phase of the Covid-19 Response’ provided a set of values for the programme to build on as well as important background reading!
We are in our second year of delivery despite the challenges of working around Covid restrictions but much of the work has been able to continue online. The webpage gives further information about the programme’s work in year 1 and can tell you how to get involved. You can also find Ipsos MORI reports and infographic that gives a good summary of our survey findings. In Year 2 we’re working alongside the Health Systems Innovation Lab at London South Bank University (LSBU) to shape changes in three areas – virtual access to care, waiting for treatment and self-management, as well as Long Covid.
Gaining a deeper understanding of what patients and carers of all ages have been experiencing during the pandemic.
Having a wider picture of what is currently happening policy wise across the NHS.
Exploring the changes that lie ahead for all of us receiving outpatient and follow up care, or waiting for treatment post Covid and how we can be involved in shaping those changes.
Contributing to the oversight, content and design of the programme as a critical friend which included being part of a subgroup that reviewed and finalised survey questions, participating in workshops to design projects and being a member of the evaluation panel that interviewed and assessed shortlisted bidders to deliver the projects in Year Two.
Applying new and forgotten skills, but there has always been someone willing to support and advise throughout!
Understanding that although local patients were primarily targeted for survey purposes the findings can be equally relevant to the care of patients living further afield, alongside seizing a key opportunity to build on the participation from harder to reach patients and carers in Year 2 working with the LSBU People’s Academy.
Crucially making new friends, new contacts and new networks across the organisations which has given me more confidence to speak up and contribute to meetings knowing that there are good relationships established in the room.
If you would like to get involved, please contact Nancy Dickinson at [email protected]
What has been my experience of being involved in the Steering Group?
Member events
All member events are free
Physiotherapy and diet - rehabilitation and beyond
Wednesday, 9 February
11am – 12pm
To register for this online event, please click here
Join us to meet members of our physiotherapy and dietetics team who will discuss how and why they work so closely with clinical colleagues to support our heart and lung patients. Participants will gain insight into the importance of diet and exercise, practical advice on how to make appropriate choices and how to build healthy eating habits and exercise, including breathing exercises, into your routine.
Governor awareness: understanding the role of governor and how you can stand for election
11 March
11am – 12pm
To register for this online event, please click here
If you are interested in getting further involved in supporting the Trust, but are unsure about what it means to be a governor and any skills required, we encourage you to attend this event. You will learn more about the election process and hear from current governors about their experience of being a governor.
Upcoming Council of Governors elections
If you have an interest in helping us continue to deliver the best possible care to our patients, then please consider standing for election in the upcoming Council of Governor elections.
Our governors play a key role in representing the views of our patient, public and staff members, ensuring that our services meet the needs of our communities.
Upcoming elections will be for the following governor seats:
1 seat in the patient carer class
2 seats in the public constituency area around Guy’s and St Thomas’ hospitals
1 seat in the public constituency area around Royal Brompton and Harefield hospitals
1 seat in the public constituency area, the Rest of England and Wales
If you are registered as a member in one of the constituencies noted above, we will be contacting you with further details about how you can participate in the election process. Please note there are no patient governor seats open for election in these upcoming elections.
We are hosting a Governors Awareness session on Friday, 11 March 2022 and invite anyone interested to join this session to learn more about the role of governors and the election process, including the timetable.
For more information, please visit the events section below or our website.
In Your Words
Here's what some of our members shared following the recent member webinar on Pulmonary Hypertension
'The seminar was excellent and answered many of the questions that I always forget to ask at clinic or there’s never enough time to explore further.'
'The webinar was very well run and informative. I’m a nurse but newly diagnosed patient so I though the session was great from both angles. The fact it’s recorded and we can go back over it again or with family is really helpful.'
'I enjoyed the part about future treatments. It’s nice to hear of the research that is being trialled.'
To view recordings of past member events, please click here
Meet one of our Peer Leaders
We’re pleased to introduce you to Duvie Dafione who recently participated in the Peer Leadership Development Programme run by the Personalised Care Group, NHS England and NHS Improvement. Duvie has been a cardiac patient of Royal Brompton Hospital since 1997. He decided to join this personal development programme to look for ways to contribute to the NHS.
When asked how his perspective of the NHS changed since participating in the programme, Duvie shared, "the system is even more complicated than how it has been portrayed, and is undergoing significant changes. I believe patients need to be part of the solution to make the NHS a more efficient and effective delivery system."
To learn more about the Peer Leadership Development Programme and to register for free, click here
Online music for young adult patients
The team at rb&harts is delighted to announce that Vocal Beats, its young people’s music programme, is now delivering one-to-one online sessions for young adult patients.
Sessions can be booked with one of our expert staff musicians on Thursdays between 4-7pm. Those who take part have a choice of developing their skills in singing, beatboxing and ukulele (we are happy to lend instruments out too). Please do get in touch directly if you know of any patients that may benefit.
Be sure to also check out and recommend our YouTube channel /vocalbeatsonline which is full of music resources patients can access.
Healing Hearts at Royal Brompton Hospital
February is Heart Awareness Month, so The Brompton Fountain have launched the ‘Healing Hearts’ appeal which is aiming to raise £100,000 to fund lifesaving medical equipment at Royal Brompton Hospital.
Many of our patients have complex heart and lung conditions and will require frequent, often lengthy admissions in hospital for surgery and on-going treatment.
The appeal will provide specialist equipment, including new 'state of the art' heart monitors and resources for the paediatric intensive care unit and children’s ward to improve the treatment and care of patients and help aid their recovery and promote wellbeing.
By helping to ‘heal hearts’ you'll be supporting the world class care that our patients receive during admission, and help to fund 'hospital grade' equipment for use once they return home.
You can find out more about the appeal and how to donate or fundraise by visiting the Healing Hearts campaign page.
To learn more about your Trust membership, share your feedback or update your contact details, please contact Nancy Dickinson at [email protected]
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