Severe Intestinal Failure unit opens at University Hospital Coventry
The service is the first of its kind for our local NHS Trust
A new unit's opened at University Hospital Coventry, to treat patients with severe intestinal failure (SIF) faster.
The service is the first of its kind for the University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire (UHCW) NHS Trust.
It's staffed by Gastroenterology ACPs (Advanced Clinical Practitioners) who can undertake assessment and treatment of patients with input from the wider nutrition team, including Consultant Gastroenterologists, Dietitians, and Nutrition Nurses.
That'll help avoid the need for patients to attend the Emergency Department and hopefully prevent unnecessary admission to hospital.
The new service has been described as a “brilliant advancement” by 75-year-old patient Sylvia Wyer, who officially opened the new unit with Jonathan Young, Chief Medical Officer at UHCW NHS Trust.
Sylvia has been receiving treatment under the nutrition team at the hospital for the past 20 years due to a diagnosis of intestinal failure.
This requires her to receive intravenous nutrition via an indwelling central venous catheter to maintain her nutrition and hydration and prevent malnutrition.
She said: “Having this new unit is going to be so much better and easier for people with TPN. If I have an issue, I can ring the team and they can bring me to the unit, so it’s a better service for people with parenteral nutrition. It’s a great advancement for the patients and they will benefit from it – it’s brilliant.”
In the past, patients had to travel to specialist centres at Salford or St Mark’s Hospital in London for treatment.
Dr Dana Ismail, Lead for Clinical Nutrition and Intestinal Failure, said the opening of the new SIF unit capped years of work to continuously develop and improve the service to meet the complex needs of patients with intestinal failure:
“This unit will deliver excellent service for patients with swift assessment and management by expert staff to bypass the front door and avoid unnecessary admissions. It’s about treating the right patient in the right place at the right time.”