MEDICS from across the north west have been seeking advice from a specialist team at Royal Blackburn and Burnley General hospitals, after it achieved some impressive outcomes for patients undergoing surgery.

The Enhanced Recovery Team (ERT) has been focussed on shortening patients’ recovery time, but has also reported a five-fold drop in the number of deaths after major bowel surgery.

The team, led by Dr Anton Krige and Heather Coleman, have been recognised as ‘pioneers’ by regional health chiefs, and clinicians from Blackpool, Preston, Lancaster and Stockport are now looking to mirror their success.

The ERT works across different departments with patients who are more ‘at risk’ of death or complications, such as those over 60 or with pre-existing heart or lung disease. Dr Krige, originally from South Africa, said there are dozens of measures which can be used with these patients to reduce the risks.

These include enhanced fitness assessments before surgery, with the potential to improve fitness if necessary, extra monitoring from the anaesthetist, a special carbohydrate drink before and after the procedure, and efforts to get the patient moving as soon as possible post-operation. In the past, some patients would have been ‘on their back’ for five days after abdominal surgery.

Dr Krige added: “A few years ago it wouldn’t have been thought possible to have people up and walking the next day, but now we’ve got people moving the same day.

“Movement helps increase the blood flow, which makes wounds heal faster and also reduces the risk of things like pressure sores and deep-vein thrombosis.”

The programme, which is now used on about 2,000 patients a year, was first launched in 2009 for major bowel surgery, before being expanding in 2011 for hip and knee replacements, hysterectomy, bladder and liver surgery.

Dr Krige said mortality for major bowel surgery had dropped from about six deaths per year to just one or two, out of 240 patients, and there are now plans to expand the programme to patients needing emergency surgery, where the risks are far higher.

Another benefit of the quicker recovery times is that more beds become available for the increasing number of patients turning up to the hospitals’ emergency ward.

Pete Rowe, a non-executive director at East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “This is innovation in action and it’s what we have to do right across the board.”