The Operating Theatre Journal July 2022

Work begins to make Alex
Operating Theatre ‘robot ready’
PLANS to bring state-of-the-art robot-assisted surgery to Redditch has
taken a step forward with work starting to make an Alexandra Hospital
operating theatre robot-ready.
Contractors are on-site, upgrading and refurbishing a theatre so robotassisted
surgery can be used in there when the service goes live later
this year.
Canon Medical Systems UK inspires
over 1,500 young people ahead of the
Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games
Canon Medical Systems UK, in association with the professional
basketball teams Sheffield Sharks and City of Birmingham Rockets, will
host the final of their inter-school basketball tournament, designed
to inspire hard-to-reach young people within local communities
surrounding Birmingham.
The work will take around six weeks to complete and will see the
theatre floor reinforced so it can take the robot’s weight.
The ventilation system will be upgraded and general refurbishment and
redecoration will take place.
Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust is investing over £3.5million
in the service which senior clinicians at the Alex aim to begin using for
surgery later this year.
A fund-raising appeal in aid of the robotic surgery had already raised
around £500,000 before development plans were disrupted by the
pandemic.
The new service’s first procedure to be offered will allow men with
prostate cancer to have robot-assisted surgery.
Robot-assisted Radical Prostatectomy (RARP) can offer the same or
better outcomes, less pain, shorter hospital stays and quicker recovery
for prostate cancer patients who can have the surgery.
Currently, around 80 prostate cancer patients a year from Worcestershire
have to travel out of the county for this type of surgery.
The Trust’s clinical service lead for Urology, Surgeon Terng Chen
said: “After working for many years to bring robot-assisted surgery to
Worcestershire, to see work starting on the operating theatre where it
will be carried out is another very positive step forward which is great
news for our patients and our service.”
Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust chief executive Matthew
Hopkins added: “This development is a vital part of our plans for the
future of our services and our hospitals and a further demonstration of
our commitment to providing the best experience of care and outcomes
for our patients.”
Source: Redditch Standard Ryan Smith
Action needed to make
Insulin administration in hospitals safer
(Patient Safety Learning blog)
Further reading here:
https://bit.ly/OTJpsl722
The tournaments will be played in the fast-paced 3x3 format on the
6th and 7th July to imitate the basketball 3x3 game at the Birmingham
2022 Commonwealth Games. This will be the first-ever appearance of
this basketball variation at the Commonwealth Games.
The competition includes 20 schools (10 primary and 10 secondary)
across Birmingham, with students receiving healthy lifestyle workshops
and basketball coaching delivered by the Sheffield Sharks and City of
Birmingham Rockets in the lead-up to the tournament. The winning
primary and secondary school will each receive a £1,000 voucher to
purchase sports equipment, encouraging continued participation in
sporting activities.
The workshops focus on themes around healthy and active lifestyles,
reflecting on the government’s national strategy ‘Towards an Active
Nation’. They will incorporate key values of the RESPECT programme,
including issues such as cyber-bullying and bullying, and will aim to
break negative cycles of behaviour, using role models to inspire this
change.
The tournament extends the Sheffield Sharks RESPECT Programme,
supported by Canon Medical, to Birmingham. This programme already
helps to improve chances for young people to break away from the cycle
of disadvantage around the Sheffield area. Basketball is the chosen
activity as a national team sport and statistics show it is increasingly
popular amongst young people, often from Black, Asian, and Minority
Ethnic (BAME) backgrounds which often correlate with the economically
disadvantaged areas of the UK.
Marko Backovic, Head of Community at the BBraun Sheffield Sharks
Basketball Club said: “As sport plays such a vital role in positive
development throughout childhood, it is great to be able to broaden the
RESPECT programme and offer the scheme to more young people across
the UK. With the help of Canon Medical, we have been able to see firsthand
the positive impact that these workshops and tournaments have,
which we hope will motivate young people around the country.”
Mark Hitchman, Managing Director of Canon Medical Systems UK said:
“We can already see the positive impacts that the RESPECT scheme
is having on local children, families, and the wider community in
Sheffield. We are, therefore, extremely proud to be able to bring this
level of support to more communities around the country.”
The scheme was delivered by the Sheffield Sharks in collaboration with
the City of Birmingham Rockets, with the aim to educate schools about
other local activities and sports clubs.
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