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
January 2023
First successful lung transplant for a Covid patient in the UK
The first patient in the UK who required a double lung transplant due to complications from Covid-19 has been successfully discharged from Harefield Hospital after his transplant in June.
The patient, Cesar Franco, who recently turned 50, remained in the Intensive Care Unit of St Thomas’ Hospital for five months before being transferred to Harefield Hospital, where he went on to receive a double lung transplant; the first of its kind in the UK.
Professor John Dunning, Director of heart and lung transplantation at Harefield Hospital and Cesar’s surgeon said, “Cesar’s story exemplifies everything that is great about the NHS, receiving excellent care throughout his journey.”
Read the full story here.
Non-Executive Director appointments at Guy's and St Thomas'
Professor Miranda Brawn and Nilkunj Dodhia have been appointed as Non-Executive Directors at Guy’s and St Thomas’
Trust Chairman, Charles Alexander, said: "I am delighted that we will be welcoming Miranda to the Board in the new year, and that Nilkunj will be joining us later in the year.
“Miranda brings a wealth of experience to the role with her background in the financial, legal and business sectors, and also as a champion of equality, diversity and inclusion. Her strong links to the communities we serve in south east London will be invaluable.
“Nilkunj will join the Board in the summer, and we look forward to benefiting from his experience of digital technology and transformation as the Trust seeks to ensure maximum benefit for patients and staff from the implementation of a new electronic health record system.”
Senior members of the leadership team
have pledged their personal commitment to a
new initiative on disability
As part of Disability History Month, leaders of the two hospitals, including non-executive director Simon Friend and chief executive Richard Grocott-Mason, have signed up to a four-point pledge.
The pledge very publicly commits to making a real difference to support disabled staff, by
1. proactively understanding their lived experiences and the challenges they face, and hearing their voices
2. taking action whenever discrimination against disabled people is encountered and holding colleagues accountable when behaviours and outcomes are discriminatory
3. upholding equality by making the workplace accessible with appropriately funded reasonable adjustments, both digital and physical, for all staff and patients
4. making changes to achieve all of these outcomes so the workplace is a more inclusive place and they are better colleagues.
Watch this moving video where members of the Executive and non-Executive team share stories from members of our Disability and Wellness network (DAWN).
A new research project at Royal Brompton and Harefield hospitals aims to offer patients suffering from lung conditions a ‘hybrid’ programme for pulmonary rehabilitation (PR), allowing a combination of in-person and remote sessions.
Led by Professor William Man, respiratory consultant, the respiratory research team and PR teams based at Harefield Hospital will work with Aseptika Limited to deliver a hybrid PR programme, which will allow patients a combination of in-person, video conferencing or self-supervised sessions.
The programme will be delivered by an app which includes live video exercise sessions, individualised pre-recorded exercise and education sessions, environmental data (such as pollution level and pollen count) and remote-monitoring. Patients in the new hybrid programme will be given a smart phone which will allow them to be carefully monitored at Harefield by a central portal.
The study will compare waiting times, uptake and completion rates, and patient satisfaction rates of the hybrid service compared with traditional PR services.
Palliative care and genetics teams awarded research funding
Congratulations to the Specialist Supportive and Palliative Care team and the Clinical Genetics and Genomics department at Royal Brompton and Harefield hospitals, who have been awarded funding via the Clinical Academic Career Development Programme (CACDP).
CACDP allows individuals to undertake a role which is 50% research and 50% clinical, with the research component supported by this funding scheme and the clinical component funded by the department where the staff member will work.
The programme was created by a team of senior clinical academics, including consultant nurse Catherine Renwick. She said:
“The second year of applications to the Clinical Academic Career Development Programme resulted in several strong applications, demonstrating research and clinical academic development commitment across non-medical professionals within our hospitals.
Common allergies target of new study
A new allergy study has started at Royal Brompton and Harefield hospitals which will investigate house dust mite and silver birch tree allergies.
Led by allergy consultant Dr Guy Scadding, the study involves introducing increasing concentrations of allergens into the nose of allergy suffers, in a procedure known as a nasal allergen challenge.
An allergy is where your body reacts to something that's normally harmless like pollen, dust or animal fur. It is a very common condition which affects approximately 1 in 4 people in the UK, and, although the symptoms can be mild, in some people they can be very serious and can affect quality of life.
To learn more about this study and how to you can participate, click here.
Operating on the human heart through a tiny tube: a visit to the cath labs
This month Head of Communications Luke Blair shares his experience of watching the life-saving activity that takes place inside our catheter laboratories.
… There are four cath labs at Harefield, run with tight, minute-to-minute efficiency which, when you consider their cost and that they have learnt from places like the airline industry and Formula 1, is perhaps not surprising. They are also stuffed with high end equipment. The newest cost £2.5 million to refurbish and more than a fifth of that went on technology…
Read Luke’s full blog here.
Join our free health and wellbeing webinars
Improving quality, equity and efficiency
of patient care
Wednesday, 8 February
11am – 12pm
To register, please click here
Join us to learn how our clinical teams are addressing issues of quality, equity and efficiency of care through risk stratification. Risk stratification is the process of assigning a risk status to patients then using this information to direct care and ultimately improve overall health outcomes.
Dr Alexander Lyon, consultant cardiologist and lead for cardio-oncology, and Dr Antonis Pantazis, consultant cardiologist and clinical lead for cardiomyopathy, will present their innovative work in risk stratification followed by a question and answer session.
Empowering patients through digital transformation: new electronic health record
Thursday, 23 February
13.00- 14.00
To register, please click here
This spring the trust will introduce Epic, a new electronic health record (EHR) system. Join us to learn how this most ambitions programme of clinical pathway transformation will help empower patients to get more involved in decisions about their health, transform the way we deliver care and bring unique opportunities for research through better data capture, to patient-driven service improvements and greater efficiency.
Presentations will include an introduction to MyChart an online portal and mobile app which offers patients personalised and secure online access to manage and view information about their care at our hospitals and community services.
Living with heart failure
Thursday, 23 March
11.30 -13.00
To register, please click here
Join our multidisciplinary team of experts who will cover aspects of living with heart failure from causes, symptoms, treatments and medications to patient choices, how to live well with heart failure and where to find out more. This webinar has been co-designed with patients, for patients and we are delighted to welcome Nick Hartshorne-Evans, founder and CEO of Pumping Marvellous Foundation, the UK’s patient-led heart failure charity, who will chair the event.
Webinar recordings
Catch up on any webinars you may have missed. Access the webinar recordings here.
Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospitals Charity:news and events
Thank you to all the Trust members who supported our work throughout 2022. With your help, we’ve funded research, bought equipment and supported small, but meaningful projects, which help to make Royal Brompton and Harefield hospitals not just excellent, but extraordinary in the care they can deliver.
We’ve got big plans for 2023 and we welcome you to join at the upcoming events to get this work off to a great start.
The Great Brompton Quiz
St Columba’s Church
Thursday, 26 January
Register here
Add some celebrity sparkle to your January. Join us at St Columba’s Church on January 26 for rounds of testing trivia, perplexing pictures, complex connections and a fiendishly difficult music round. To warm up a cold January evening, we will also be serving a hearty sausage supper, which is included in the ticket price.
Does your team have what it takes to knock our reigning champions off their top spot? To sign up and hear our celebrity announcement first, click here.
London Landmarks Half Marathon
If you’re craving a physical challenge, then the London Landmarks Half Marathon might be the event for you. Runners will discover London’s ‘quirky & hidden’ secrets and live music will fuel the energetic atmosphere. Lace up your shoes, get training and run to fundraise for our amazing hospitals. We’ll be there to support you all the way.
To sign up visit our website.
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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