Visit to Royal Stoke University Hospital – part of the University Hospitals of the North Midlands NHS Trust

Our chief executive visited the Royal Stoke University Hospital – part of the University Hospitals of the North Midlands NHS Trust. 

Daniel said: "The trust provides acute hospital services to the majority of Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent with a catchment of about three million people. It has evolved into being a major trauma centre stretching as far as north Wales. Its case mix is weighted to emergency care, maternity and highly complex elective services. The quality of maternity and robotic surgery that I saw on my visit felt exceptionally high.

"The hospital is supported by its charity which in recent years has grown from a turnover of £800k per annum to over £10m per annum which is a remarkable achievement. That has allowed the trust to invest in equipment (and robotics) that is far beyond the reach of most hospitals.

"The jewel in the crown for the trust is the quantity and quality of robotic surgery its surgical team in colorectal, gynaecology and urology undertake with spinal surgery about to commence. The hospital has three robots currently with plans to expand to five and further ambitions to double this.  

• It has undertaken almost 5,000 robotic procedures and is the most productive site in the country.  
• For major colorectal procedures the number of patients on an all-day list has increased from 75% of lists with one patient before the robot, to now 75% with two patients or more. 
• The benefits for the hospital and for patients having fewer admissions to ITU, less infections, reduced length of stay and much faster recovery times is considerable.  
• The roll out of robotics across multiple surgical specialties and training of their surgical workforce is impressive.  

"Maternity services – like many hospitals, have had a chequered history. The population served by the trust has many complex needs with Stoke-on-Trent in the top 10 most deprived parts of the country and as a result 90% of the mothers count as 'complex.'  The 6,000 births translate into between 15-20,000 attendances a year in the maternity assessment unit (maternity equivalent of ED). Their maternity service is rated ‘good’ by the CQC, and it was clear why.

• Improving health – the smoking cessation team has reduced the rate of mothers smoking at the time of birth from 17% to 5% with the midwives running lifestyle courses. They are launching continuity of care programmes for teenage mothers and those with learning disabilities.
• Staffing – they have increased their midwifery establishment by 70, are fully staffed and have strong preceptor programmes which have resulted in 100% retention rates in the last few years.
• Safety – the midwives and obstetricians clearly work well together with a joint staff base from which they run daily labour ward and theatre multi-disciplinary teams and safety huddles. 

"Thank you so much to Simon and his team along with Sarah and Julie in maternity and the surgeons Philip, Roy and Richard for a totally inspiring visit!"