10 January 2020
UH Bristol consultant appointed as GIRFT clinical lead for cardiothoracic surgery
The Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) programme has welcomed a
new clinician to lead its work in helping to improve cardiothoracic
surgery services across England.
Doug West, who has been a consultant thoracic surgeon at
University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust since 2011,
replaces David Richens as GIRFT's clinical lead for cardiothoracic
surgery. Mr Richens retired in 2018, a few months after the
publication of the programme's national report on
cardiothoracic surgery, which he authored.
Mr Richens and the GIRFT team visited all 31 cardiothoracic
units in England before making a series of 20 recommendations in
the national report, offering the potential to achieve significant
improvements in patient care, such as shorter waiting times for
surgery, fewer cancellations and better outcomes from surgery for
thousands of patients every year.
Mr West will be leading the programme's revisits to units,
presenting refreshed data and looking at the progress of
recommendations and where further improvements can be made.
Professor Tim Briggs, chair of the GIRFT programme and national
director of clinical improvement for the NHS, said: "It's great to
welcome Doug to the GIRFT programme to carry on the good work
started by David Richens.
"Our 2018 national cardiothoracic report identified a number of
ways to improve practices, process and outcomes. Through our
revisits to trusts, we will look at what changes have been made
since we originally visited and how we can continue to help reduce
delays and time spent in hospital for patients."
Mr West, who has also been involved in the development of NHS
England's National Optimal Lung Cancer Pathway, said: "I'm excited
to be joining the GIRFT programme to lead the revisits for
cardiothoracic surgery.
"My previous work with national audit in our specialty has given
me an insight into the high quality of care and
innovation delivered by cardiothoracic surgeons in the NHS -
the challenge for our specialty now is to make sure that all
patients in England can access that high quality care by
sharing best practices across the whole country."
President of the Society for Cardiothoracic Surgery (SCTS), Mr
Richard Page, welcomed Mr West's appointment and said: "The GIRFT
programme and the whole cardiothoracic surgical community is very
fortunate in having such a talented and enthusiastic surgeon as
Doug West as the new GIRFT lead for our specialty.
"Apart from working in a highly functioning surgical unit, Doug
has extensive experience of comparative surgical audit and
will build on the excellent work carried out by David Richens for
GIRFT over the past few years.
"All my colleagues within the SCTS look forward to working with
Doug in his new role."
ENDS
For more information, please contact GIRFT communications and
media manager Michelle Carter: michelle.carter19@nhs.net
or call 07827 842369.
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