New Year’s message from Dr Daniel Jones, Renal Care Group Lead, St George’s
At the start of the year many of us think about how we are performing, the challenges ahead and what we need to do. As the Care Group Lead at the St George’s Renal Unit this is something which I am tasked at doing for the unit so that we can try and meet the needs of our local community and ensure the unit moves forward in a direction which improves the service. Before, I update you with our plans in 2015 it’s worth considering what we achieved in 2014.
Throughout 2014, St George’s renal unit continued to be proud of excellent clinical outcomes. Independent National audits showed us to have some of the best UK patient survival results for patients starting on dialysis or receiving a transplant. Our multidisciplinary team has worked hard on ensuring those who are suitable for a kidney transplant get listed as quickly as possible and we are performing well in terms of this. Likewise we saw the number of patients transplanted before they need dialysis increase. We were also pleased to see that the kidney function in those who are transplanted appears to be in the top 10% of UK units. Over 2014 St George’s performed 133 kidney transplants for the regional network serving South West London, Surrey and Sussex.
We have also been busy working on our relocation plans and anticipate Trust approval of these in early 2015. Part of this work has already identified several areas where we could do things differently to improve patient experience and we are tackling this while we wait for a New Unit. For instance we have made a streamlined service for day case kidney biopsies which is speeding up the diagnosis of kidney conditions, freeing up beds on Buckland ward for other admissions and improving the patient experience.
The Renal Unit starts the New Year with some new members of staff. On the clinical team Mr Ahmed Ali has joined the surgical service as the fifth transplant surgeon and on the management side we have a new service manager Lynette Clarke who will work with the clinicians to take our service forward.
It’s important to acknowledge the support we continue to receive from our patient group, helping us get things right and to highlight where we are not. Over the past year, I have been privileged to have worked with many of you in the New Renal Unit groups and have seen what we can all achieve when we work together. As clinicians and patients within the renal service I believe we all want the same things; excellent patient care and clinical outcomes and to be treated in a kind respectful manner so that we all have good experiences. During 2015, we will continue to focus on improving all of these and establish the foundations of a new unit fit to serve the population of South West London.
Dr Daniel Jones
Renal Care Group Lead, St George’s.
