March 2024

Experts at UHP are investigating whether artificial intelligence can highlight those at greater risk of stroke

Experts at University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust (UHP) and sites across the south west are using state of the art Artificial Intelligence tools to see if brain scans and other medical tests can be used to accurately predict whether someone will have a stroke in the future.

Strokes represent one of the leading causes of death and disability in the UK, impacting around 100,000 patients each year.

However, with one in seven strokes seen as preventable, a new project aims to enhance the ability to predict whether a person is at an increased risk of stroke.

Funded by a ￡300,000 grant from the Medical Research Council, the ABSTRACT project is being led by experts at UHP, the University of Plymouth and the University of Exeter. They will also be working with two commercial providers of medical investigations, Express Diagnostics and Ultracardiac.

It will assess past brain scans and other medical test results of stroke survivors, and aim to establish if there are patterns which could have identified them as being at higher risk of stroke.

The researchers will then look to develop a series of artificial intelligence models that can predict whether someone is at greater risk of experiencing a stroke at any point over the next decade.

With the first five years of care post stroke costing the NHS around ￡3.6billion, and 13.7% of strokes regarded as being preventable, the project team hopes its work will not only improve lives but also prove cost effective at a time when the health system is under greater financial pressure than ever.

Dr Stephen Mullin, Consultant Neurologist at University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust and Associate Professor in Neurology in the University of Plymouth’s Peninsula Medical School, is the project’s principal investigator.

“Strokes can have a significant impact on both the people who experience them and their families. Often when we review the brain scans people who have had a major stroke, we see features – including what we call ‘silent strokes’ – that could have identified them as being at risk.

“We hope that by applying our expertise to create a way of improving stroke prediction, it will both prevent people developing a stroke and in the process save money which can be used to improve patient care elsewhere.”

The project, funded by the Medical Research Council, brings together researchers with expertise in health data science, data governance, statistics, radiology/imaging, and neurology.

It will initially build a database of results from patients seen at University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust, and benefits from the support and collaboration of the national Sentinel Stroke National Audit Programme (SSNAP) and NIHR Applied Research Collaboration South West Peninsula (PenARC).

This database will include the results of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computer tomography (CT) brain scans, electrocardiograms (ECG) and echocardiograms (ECGs), standard tests currently carried out when a person is suspected of having had a stroke.

It will be used to train an artificial intelligence computer model, which the researchers hope can predict who will later develop strokes based on patterns within the data collected.

The work will leverage state of the art techniques with artificial intelligence, collectively known as explainability. These tools allow visualisation and identification of the factors driving predictions. This allows researchers to be certain that the predictions being made are accurate and hopefully will identify new factors which contribute to the risk of developing a stroke.

An opportunity will be given for patients to opt out of use of their data in this project, but the research team is currently compiling the database which will be used in the analysis.

“This project is an exciting opportunity to apply cutting-edge AI technologies to routinely collected patient data. Through that we hope to identify patients at high risk of stroke, so that measures may be put in place to tackle that risk, and help those people live longer, happier, and more productive lives.” Dr Mike Allen, PenARC Senior Research Fellow in Applied Healthcare Modelling and Data Science at the University of Exeter.

For more information on ABSTRACT visit: https://abstract.sustainsw.ac.uk/index.html

Appointment of Interim Chief Executive at University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust

We pleased to share that we have appointed Mark Hackett as our Interim Chief Executive.

Mark is an experienced NHS leader, with more than 30 years’ experience at Board level, including as Chief Executive of Southampton University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, North Staffordshire NHS Trust and latterly, Swansea Bay University Health Board. Mark is a values-driven leader focused on quality with a track record in delivery.

With Ann James’ tenure as Chief Executive finishing at the end of March, Mark will pick up the reins from the start of April. The Board reiterate their profound thanks to Ann and welcome Mark to Plymouth who will help to continue to drive UHP forward and make further progress, building on the recovery we have already made since the pandemic.

Mark said: “There is so much that I can see staff here have to be proud of, for example driving improvements in care for patients with cancer and in elective care and that is testament to the effort being put in. I recognise there is a significant challenge manifesting itself in urgent and emergency care and that will require a team effort to address, both within the whole trust and with partners across the Devon and Cornwall systems. I promise that this will involve staff and clinicians at all levels to make the improvements patients deserve. There will be some key decisions to be made about how we do that together and I am committed, in my time as Interim, to working with staff, partners and the Board to make those decisions and drive a step change for the communities UHP serves.”

We will move shortly to advertise the role of substantive Chief Executive – we will publish more about that soon.

New Inpatient Pharmacy Opens at University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust

This week marks the launch of a new Inpatient Pharmacy at University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust, officially opened by NHS England Chief Pharmaceutical Officer David Webb.

Derriford Hospital’s Inpatient Pharmacy dispenses an average of 3000 medicines every day. Now, a complete refurbishment and installation of a state-of-the-art pharmacy robot, means improved efficiency in dispensing those important medications.

The pharmacy robot allows faster and safer dispensing of medicines along with keeping better track of stock. It also reduces paper processes, which is better for the environment. This paves the way for medicines automation across the entire Trust.

Dan Stevens, University Hospitals Plymouth Associate Director of Operations for Pharmacy, said: “Thank you to everyone for your patience whilst we complete this huge project. We are confident you will see improvements in all aspects of our service as a result and cant wait to see the transformation across the hospital as we further develop the service and digital systems within Inpatient Pharmacy.”

Kandarp Thakkar, UHP’s Chief Pharmacist and Clinical Director of Medicines Optimisation, said: “We’re delighted to open this new and improved facility and thank our brilliant teams of over 150 colleagues for all their hard work and drive to get the new pharmacy open and making a difference for patients.”

Pharmacy colleagues celebrated moving into the revamped inpatient pharmacy after 5 months of relocation to a temporary unit where teams manually picked medicines while the renovations were completed and a new robot was installed.

UHP confirms supplier for new Electronic Patient Record

University Hospitals?Plymouth NHS Trust?(UHP) has taken another step forward in its exciting journey to introduce a trust-wide Electronic Patient Record (EPR) system.

The Trust, which has a secondary care catchment of around 475,000 people, with a wider peninsula population of almost 2,000,000 people who can access specialist services, has been given the green light from its Board after a rigorous tender process and is delighted to announce that Epic has been selected as the preferred supplier for an EPR, subject to contract and national approval of the Full Business Case.

Introducing an Electronic Patient Record will transform our entire way of working — getting the right care to the right people at the right time, whilst releasing time to care.

Epic has a strong track record in collaborating with the NHS, having worked with many trusts to deliver their EPRs including Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, Kings College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust.

It was also announced in January that Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust (TSD)?had also identified Epic as its preferred supplier. This means the three Acute Trusts in Devon now have an exciting opportunity to provide a truly joined up EPR solution. The benefits of doing this will support both operational efficiency and patient safety across the region.?

Mr Simeon Brundell Consultant surgeon and the Trust’s Chief Clinical Information Officer said: “We know that an EPR will help drive improved standards of services at our hospital. With secure, immediate access to live data, the new system will give clinical staff more time to deliver higher quality, and safer care. For patients, this will mean they don’t have to remember their medical history or repeat the same information to different members of staff, making their care journey more joined-up.”

Epic Executive Leslie Selby said: “The Trust will be able to offer convenient mobile access for patients and clinicians while also benefiting from advanced features such as generative AI and machine learning to improve outcomes and efficiency. We look forward to supporting the Trust and its partners in improving the way care is delivered for people throughout Devon.”

NHS England is providing ￡1.9 billion to NHS trusts to ensure they all meet a core level of digitisation and have electronic patient record systems in place.

This?investment in digitising the frontline will ensure that health and care staff have access to health-related information when and where it is needed, supporting them to deliver care efficiently, effectively and safely, reducing variation and improving outcomes.

Same Day Emergency Care Service is Expanding

Building on the success of the Same Day Emergency Care (SDEC) service, which treats and discharges around 40-45 patients needing emergency care every day, University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust is expanding the service.

This will allow space for an additional 75 people to be treated each week and improve ‘flow’ throughout the hospital.

Becki Greenwood, Service Line Manager for Acute Medicine at University Hospitals Plymouth, said: “We have recognised that we are seeing patients within the current SDEC unit that could be seen and treated in a different environment.

“Patients will be seen sooner by both nursing and medical teams, reducing the length of time before they get home.

“By utilising this new space, we are creating more capacity in our SDEC services for patients from the Emergency Department and community teams including South West Ambulance Service Trust.”

We also recently shared our future plans for a new Urgent Treatment Centre and Fracture Clinic on the Derriford Hospital site, and enabling works are also underway for a new Urgent and Emergency Care Facility .

Opening hours for the Same Day Emergency Care unit are 8am until 8pm, Monday to Friday.

UHP uses world’s smallest artificial heart pump to provide life-saving treatment

A patient has received life-saving care thanks to a revolutionary treatment used by the Cardiology team at University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust (UHP).

A patient who has been waiting for a coronary angioplasty, a procedure that uses a balloon to open a narrowed heart artery, to allow for a stent to be fitted in their heart, has been able to have this treatment closer to home thanks to the dedication of the Cardiology team at UHP.

Due to the high-risk nature of the procedure, it was necessary to use an artificial heart pump, called an Impella, to ensure their heart was supported throughout the minimally invasive complex and high risk angioplasty and stent procedure. The whole of the procedure was done with the patient fully awake and they went on to make a quick and safe recovery.

While this technology was already available in the UK, patients from the south west previously had to travel many miles out of the region in order to be able to benefit from it, with many not being well enough to attempt the journey. This was until the team at UHP have been able to offer Impella assisted coronary angioplasty and stent procedure here in Plymouth.

Impella pumps are the world’s smallert artificial heart pumps and they are used to treat patients who have had heart attacks and have suffered cardiogenic shock, or are in need of high-risk angioplasties to allow stents to be fitted. The pump enables the heart to rest and recover by temporarily assisting the pumping function of the heart to efficiently deliver blood and oxygen to the entire body during these life-saving surgeries.

Speaking about their treatment, the patient said: “The proceedure was painless and like a walk in the park. It’s amazing what the technology can do. I had great faith in Dr Viswanathan as he has been working to get this proceedure for 4 years and his ambition has brought this proceedure to Plymouth.

“I was well looked after in the hospital and everyone was fantastically friendly and helpful, ?you can’t fault it.” ?

The care team who performed the procedure was made up of Consultant Interventional Cardiologists, ICU consultants, Cardiac and Vascular sugeons, nurses from the Cardiology department and AHP from cathlabs at UHP with support from Professor Vas Panoulous, one of the countiries most experienced Impella-specialist Consultant Cardiologist’s, who is based at Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Trust, London.

Consultant Interventional Cardiologist Dr Girish Viswanathan, who specialises in coronary intervention in South West Cardiothoracic Centre, said that the procedure was a success for both the patient and the team involved. Discussing the impact of the treament, he said: “We are so glad that we are now able to offer this treatment at UHP.

“We know that this will be reassuring for patients who would otherwise have to travel long distances or could be too unwell to undertake the journeys. We hope that in the future this technology will benefit people in and around Plymouth and the wider Peninsula region.”

It has taken four years of behind-the-scenes work to bring this technological advancement to Plymouth but it is hoped that by providing this treatment option at UHP, it will help to improve the quality of life for these patients living in Plymouth and beyond in the south west. ?

For more information on the services provided by the Cardiology team at UHP, visit https://www.plymouthhospitals.nhs.uk/cardiology .

Planning Permission Granted for New Community Diagnostic Centre

Planning permission has been granted for the new Plymouth Community Diagnostic Centre (PCDC) to be built in?the West End.?

University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust (UHP) submitted plans last year following a public consultation in November. It is hoped the new facility will reduce health inequities for those living in areas of greater deprivation in Plymouth and improve overall health outcomes.

Plymouth City Council has now approved the plans for the new centre which will offer over 91,600 imaging tests in its location at Colin Campbell Court.

Stuart Windsor, Future Hospitals Director at University Hospitals Plymouth said: “We are pleased to have received planning permission for the new diagnostic centre. Groundworks are due to commence in April and we are working on the detailed designs to bring a full suite of diagnostic testing to the West End of the city. This will give people living in or near the city centre access to these tests closer to their homes”.

Patients will be able to visit the PCDC for tests such as MRI, CT, X-ray, lung cancer screening, ultrasound, audiology, ECG, point of care testing, and blood tests.? It will also offer physiological measurement testing such as echocardiograms, ECG and ambulatory monitoring, pacemaker checks, a full array of lung function tests, sleep studies, EEG and vascular ultrasound. More services could be added to this list in the future. Whilst building works take place, there will continue to be a mobile scanning unit on the Colin Campbell site to enable people access these tests.

Councillor Mark Lowry, Cabinet Member for Finance said: “This is brilliant news and it’s a moment to reflect on how far we have come and what’s had to happen to get here. We acquired properties around Colin Campbell Court as part of our long term regeneration plans and have been working hard with colleagues in the NHS to bring a health facility to a city centre location, particularly for our residents who need more support with their health and wellbeing.

“We’ve demolished buildings, prepped the land and only recently completed the work required to transfer the land. Our legal, property and planning teams have all helped make this happen. Today is a good day at the office!”

City Centre manager Steve Hughes added: “Great news for the hospital, great news for residents and great news for the city centre. We are all too aware that regeneration takes time but this is a major moment for the West End and I look forward to seeing work start.”

A construction partner will be appointed shortly and it is hoped that works will commence in 2024 and patients will benefit from this new facility in 2025.

Boots Outpatient Pharmacy Opens at Derriford Hospital

Outpatients who need medication following a hospital appointment will now benefit from a new pharmacy facility from Boots, which opened on 2 April.

University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust’s outpatient pharmacy faced growing demand with nearly 3000 items dispensed every week meaning it had outgrown its previous space.

Chief Pharmacist & Clinical Director of Medicines Optimisation at UHP, Kandarp Thakkar, said: “We’re delighted to officially open today and are confident that thousands of patients who use this service every week will have a much improved service.

“In addition, through our partnership with Boots, there will also be everyday items that visitors and staff can purchase.”

Ashley Littlewood-Miller, National Hospitals Manager said: “We’re thrilled to be open and are excited to see our partnership with the Trust develop and look forward to welcoming patients.” Attending the opening, Jim Griffiths, Chair of the Patient Council said: “The Patient Council is delighted to see the opening of the new Pharmacy facility at Derriford Hospital. The extra space available at the site, longer opening times, and the option for patients to collect their prescriptions at their local Boots branches will, we believe, significantly improve the patient experience.”

The new outpatient pharmacy will open on Saturdays, offering a convenient and modern service to patients. Patients will now have the option to collect medicines from their local pharmacy through the Boots network in Plymouth and the surrounding areas.

Location

Boots is located next to multi-storey car park which is a short walk from the main entrance. Please follow the signs.

If you have difficulties with mobility, there is a shuttle bus which can collect you from the main entrance. If you need to break up your journey there is some dedicated seating outside the Orthopaedic Outpatient department, halfway between the main entrance and the Boots store.

Parking

If you are parked in the multistorey car park, Boots in on the ground floor next door to Costa. There will be two dedicated bays close to the Boots store allowing pharmacy customers to park for enough time to pick up their prescriptions. In addition, there is dedicated parking for disabled customers in the multistorey car park.

More information about collecting your medication is on the Boots outpatient pharmacy page.