Patients using a hospital’s endoscopy unit are benefiting from new developments to protect their privacy, dignity and safety.
The endoscopy unit at Lincoln County Hospital has recently undergone a £850,000 refurbishment programme to provide top quality facilities to the 6,500 patients a year who use it.
This has included new admitting, changing and recovery rooms for both sexes, a designated clinical room for bowel cancer screening to provide privacy and dignity for patients and a new path outside so that patients can access the unit more safely.
The endoscopy unit cares for patients undergoing endoscopy procedures, which are procedures where the inside of your body is examined using an endoscope – a long, thin, flexible tube that has a light source and a video camera at one end.
The developments have meant that the unit has recently been given Joint Advisory Group accreditation. Known as JAG, this is a national award set up to ensure high standards of care in clinical quality, quality of patient experience, training and workforce.
Following their inspection of the unit, the JAG team report said: “The new unit is light and airy, clean and uncluttered, and is fully compliant with gender segregation and enables privacy and dignity throughout the patient pathway, managed in a clear one-way flow.
“There is strong clinical and management leadership that has fostered a culture that clearly strives to achieve excellence in the services it provides to the local population and that success is evident from patient feedback.”
Nikki Woodcock, Head of Endoscopy, Screening and Physiological Sciences for ULHT, said: “I’m so proud of the team in the Lincoln endoscopy unit for all their hard work to ensure they can provide the best possible care for their patients.
“The JAG accreditation is not only down to the environmental changes that have taken place, but also down to the excellent working practices of the team, and the efforts they have put in to ensure the unit is well staffed and well used.”
An endoscopy is a procedure where the inside of your body is examined using an endoscope – a long, thin, flexible tube that has a light source and a video camera at one end.
Endoscopes can be inserted into the body through a natural opening, such as the mouth and down the throat, or through the anus.
Some of the most commonly used types of endoscopes include:
· Colonoscopes – used to examine your large intestine (colon)
· Gastroscopes – used to examine your oesophagus and stomach
· Endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) – used to check for gallstones
· Broncoscopes – used to examine your lungs and airways
The JAG accreditation is awarded by the Joint Advisory Group on Gastrointenstinal Endoscopy. The group assumes an active role in the quality assurance of endoscopy training and services across the UK.