Director update

I am Mike Graham, Director of Operations for the Clinical Support Business Unit. Our Business Unit provides a variety of diagnostic, screening and therapy services within the Trust, the region and across the wider North of England. There are six Directorates within the business unit: Pathology, Pharmacy, Diagnostic Imaging, Therapy and Outpatient Services, Endoscopy and Screening, and Breast Services These services are run by around 1,000 staff made up of 13 different professional groups

A key piece of news from Clinical Support and Screening is that we are currently working on plans, along with colleagues in QEF, Medicine Business Unit and Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals to develop the Community Diagnostics Centre at the MetroCentre. Once opened next year, this will house 2 MRI scanners, 2 CT scanners plus ultrasound, Echo, ECG, sleep studies and blood testing. We are proud to be working with our partners to bring an enhanced level of care for the patients of Tyneside which will speed up their diagnosis

We are also pleased to have achieved further external investment from NHS England to expand our diagnostic services on the QE site. These include approved plans to create a 5th Endoscopy room which is nearing completion, and the expansion of the bowel screening hub laboratory to process extra tests for the bowel screening programme. We provide this service for the whole of the North of England, and the investment is to ensure we have the capacity to deliver the service to accommodate the expansion of this testing down to 54-year olds Our biggest on-site investment will be the second MRI scanner at the QE and work will start shortly on this and we’re hoping to be open in the winter of 2024.

Maintaining quality is a key part of our work and we are regularly inspected. We have had a successful CQC inspection of our Medicines Optimisation process, led by Pharmacy, with a “Good” rating. Pathology received its UKAS accreditation, and in March we have our JAG inspection in Endoscopy. The team have prepared well and we’re hoping for a successful outcome Other successes have involved our Breast Screening team being shortlisted for a Health Service Journal award for service recovery after the pandemic

Continued

Changing the way we deliver services through transformation projects is also key for us in Clinical Support and Screening. We have brought together the Outpatient Department and Booking Team into the same management structure and will launch an Outpatient User Group to include all partners. This will be our means to working together to ensure we have an efficient and effective service. The Occupational Therapists have introduced a seven-day service to improve patient flow, the audiologists have introduced a technician role to be able to create more appointments for patients, and the Dietitians are piloting a post to help improve care to cancer patients

Michael Graham Director of Operations – Clinical Support and Screening Business Unit

Gateshead website URL change

As you all know, we relaunched our website in June 2022 and this has been a huge success. The next step in the relaunch is the URL name change from QE Gateshead to fit under the new branding of Gateshead Health.

This will be taking place on Tuesday 28th February 2023. From this date our new URL will be www.gatesheadhealth.nhs.uk

Death of a colleague

On behalf of the EAU department

One of our colleagues, Susan McGurk HCA in EAU has sadly passed away in service. Susan joined with the Trust in August 2022 and she was a big asset to the team and we are deeply saddened by this news

The funeral will be on Thursday 2 March at 11.15am in Saltwell Crematorium and staff are welcome to attend.

Our thoughts are with the family and loved ones of Susan during this difficult time.

We know that some of you may be affected by this news and our occupational health team are here to offer support Please contact them via ghnt.occupational.health@nhs.net or visit the Staff wellbeing hub | North East and North Cumbria NHS.