Pioneering medics cut hospital stays for cancer patients

May 30 2008 By Alison Dayani, Health Correspondent

A BIRMINGHAM trust is leading the way in slashing the time cancer patients have to stay in hospital after gruelling treatment.

Pioneer work by medics at Birmingham Treatment Centre, City Hospital, has been so impressive that it could soon be adopted by other hospitals across the rest of the country - and save the NHS £22 million a year.

Cancer specialists from Sandwell and West Birmingham Trust, which runs the hospital in Winson Green, have sent details of two case studies to NHS bosses on how they made life easier for a patients with breast and colon cancers, which will be published in the coming weeks by Improvement NHS reports and sent nationwide.

Consultant Luna Vishwanath said adopting the same methods nationwide could save the NHS £22 million a year and that the changes helped make for a "fantastic" patient exper- ience.

"The key is a pre-admission appointment the week before the operation is due," said Mrs Vishwa- nath.

"This means a day’s surgical work can be planned, so that those cases where there are more likely to be complications can be done first, giving longer time for observation, while still getting the patient home on the same day.

"The results have been spectacular. Of 250 patients operated on in the last 12 months, not a single one has been re-admitted with any problems – and the patients much prefer to be at home."

For breast cancer surgery, a patient typically stays in hospital for five of six days, but at City Hospital, the team has reduced that to no more than 23 hours.