Milton Keynes University Hospital opens a new Day Case Unit to increase surgical capacity

The need:

Over the previous year, Milton Keynes University Hospital had increased its elective activity, through a number of successful initiatives. These included Super Paediatric Surgery Days – providing dedicated days for paediatric surgery, and the introduction of High Volume Low Complexity lists, where more patients can be treated over a shorter space of time. This Day Case Unit would further increase the number of patients the hospital is able to see and treat.

"We are delighted to be able to bring in this new facility to ensure that our patients receive the treatment they need in a timely manner. We recognise patients are waiting longer than we would like and this is one of several ways in which we are reducing those waiting times, improving both the care and experience that our patients receive"

The plan:

The new mobile facility, supplied by Vanguard Healthcare Solutions, would house both a day case theatre and a dedicated short-stay recovery ward, ensuring patients could be seen and treated in the same location, on the same day. While not connected to the hospital, the facility would be positioned close to the Trust’s other surgical facilities, ensuring patient care, experience and flow would be optimised.

The solution:

The Vanguard facility enables the Trust to perform a range of day case, general surgery operations as well as some dental, urology and gynaecology procedures. The proficiency of the clinical team, also supplied by Vanguard, contributes further to this flexibility, allowing the Trust to react to the most pressing need. 

The outcome:

Within three months of opening, over 330 procedures had been performed in the Day Case Unit. The additional capacity allowed for greater flexibility in the main hospital theatres and the overall waiting list was reduced by around 600, including 554 long waiters.

Feedback from surgeons is that the facility provides a nice working environment. Patients have praised the calm atmosphere and good communication. They understand where they are on the lists and appreciate how seamlessly their care is being provided.

“One of the real benefits we’ve found is that because we’ve got the staffed unit, with the (Vanguard) theatre staff, we’ve been able to really work flexibly with what we put through the unit. So, we can work quite nimbly and react to where our waiting list pressures are.”