Annual Report and Accounts 2012/13 - Royal Devon & Exeter Hospital

18 1. Our Year
Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust
Annual Report and Accounts 2012/13
regularly undertake activities such as
workplace risk assessment, health
surveillance, stress counselling and
medical advice on sickness absence or
early retirements.
Olympic Imaging Services
RD&E consultant musculoskeletal
radiologist Dr David Silver played a
key role in the setting up of specialist
imaging services for hundreds of
international athletes competing in the
2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games
in London.
He was one of many NHS professionals
who gave up annual leave to volunteer
for this once-in-a-lifetime experience –
providing top class healthcare services for
competitors in the pre-games training
and during the summer Olympics.
LOCOG (London Organising
Committee for the Olympic Games)
asked the British Society of Skeletal
Radiologists to provide expert
musculoskeletal imaging for all athletes
and the wider ‘Olympic family.’ A
project committee was set up four
years ago with elected volunteers who
are all Society Members. Dr Silver
was elected to this committee and
worked with the other members to
set up imaging facilities throughout
the UK and recruit a 116-strong
volunteer workforce of radiologists,
radiographers and radiographic
assistants.
Around 200 athletes a day used the
musculoskeletal medical services
in the state-of-the-art ‘polyclinic’
in the Olympic village. There was
multi-million pound investment in
the clinic technology – including two
MRI scanners, a CT scanner and three
ultrasound machines. These facilities
are now part of a lasting Olympics
legacy, benefitting local NHS patients.
Accreditation is a SW First!
Exeter Occupational Health Service,
which is part of the Royal Devon &
Exeter NHS Foundation Trust, provides
a comprehensive range of occupational
health services to the RD&E and other
regional NHS Trusts. It was the first
service in the South West to achieve
Safe, Effective, Quality Occupational
Health Standards (SEQOHS)
accreditation.
The accreditation standards were
developed in response to a report by
National Director for Health and Work,
Dame Carol Black, which examined
the health of Britain’s working age
population and the quality of support
services currently in place.
Occupational health is the promotion
and maintenance of health and
wellbeing at work and the team
Pioneering LINX ® procedure for
severe acid reflux
Consultant Upper Gastro-Intestinal (GI)
Surgeon, Mr Saj Wajed, carried out a
pioneering new surgical procedure at the
RD&E. We were the first NHS hospital in
the UK to offer this innovative procedure
for sufferers of Gastro Oesophageal
Reflux Disease (GORD), a severe and
persistent form of acid reflux.
Most people will experience
uncomfortable symptoms of acid
reflux such as heartburn at some
point, especially after a large meal.
For people living with GORD however,
regurgitation and chest pain are just
some of the uncomfortable symptoms
they have to deal with on a daily basis.
Other aggravating symptoms of GORD
include nausea, coughing and difficulty
swallowing – these symptoms can be
severe and persist over time.
The new LINX ® Reflux Management
System is a small, flexible band of
titanium beads with magnetic cores
that is placed around the oesophagus,
just above the stomach. It is designed
to restore the body’s natural barrier
to reflux and eliminate the symptoms
associated with GORD.
Until now, if GORD symptoms were
not relieved by medication, the only
other option available was a procedure
known as fundoplication. This involves
altering the anatomy of the stomach
by wrapping part of it around the
oesophagus.