The Operating Theatre Journal July 2022

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Scotland’s First Dedicated ‘Block’ Anaesthetic Room Reduces
Hospital Stay And Improves Recovery For 1,000 Patients
MembershipAdvert_Half_Apr_22_M_NEW v1.1.indd 1 20/04/2022 16:12:14
Block room team celebrate 1000th patient
A dedicated regional anaesthetic ‘block room’ at the Queen Elizabeth
University Hospital (QEUH) has helped improve patient recovery and
reduce the average length of hospital stay for 1,000 patients.
Thanks to the creation of the service, length of stay has on average,
reduced by 25% (five hours) for patients, while surgical time available
for clinicians to tackle waiting lists has also increased substantially.
The block room was set up in 2020 to reduce the reliance on general
anaesthetics during the first wave of COVID-19. The service provides
patients with specialist regional anaesthesia which blocks nerves to
provide effective pain relief ahead of surgery while also allowing them
to remain awake, therefore avoiding risks and side-effects associated
with general anaesthetic.
Additionally, patients are 17 times less likely to have significant pain
after surgery, and far less likely to need strong pain killers, such as
morphine.
As the block room has become more established and the understanding
of regional anaesthesia better understood, QEUH patients who undergo
regional anaesthesia are now regularly discharged in as little as two
hours following surgery, avoiding an overnight stay and freeing up bed
capacity at the hospital.
A dedicated space for anaesthesia to take place also means around two
hours of additional surgical capacity is created per day in theatres,
allowing surgeons to see more patients.
Regional anaesthesia can be used across a vast range of surgical
procedures and has also proven highly effective in providing pain
relief to major trauma patients. This form of pain relief helps in
many injuries, but particularly chest trauma, where such patients may
otherwise require intubation (induced coma), which can carry greater
risk to the patient and result in a longer recovery time.
Iain Thomson, consultant anaesthetist, and lead for the QEUH block
room, said:
“Block rooms have been used in the USA for a number of years, so
it’s fantastic to have been able to bring this model to Scotland and
see how much it has benefitted QEUH patients. They don’t need to be
put under, they take less time to recover and they don’t experience
nausea or vomiting, and other potentially nasty side-effects of general
anaesthesia. As we recover from the pandemic, the more efficiently
we can treat patients, the more patients we can treat. The block room
is a key asset here as it helps free up bed space, and also means our
surgical teams can fit in more procedures as we take up less theatre
time for anaesthesia.”
Wesley Stuart, Chief of Medicine at the QEUH, added: “We’re delighted
to see the 1,000th patient benefit from the block room. As well as
improving patient experience and increasing surgical capacity, it has
also proven to be a valuable teaching resource. We’re able to provide
expert regional anaesthesia training to our staff, which is laying solid
foundations for the future of our block room at the QEUH as well as
providing the opportunity to share techniques with other centres and
Health Boards across the country.”
Find out more 02921 680068 • e-mail admin@lawrand.com Issue 382 July 2022 13