Anaesthetists at Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust receive Anaesthesia Clinical Services Accreditation

Pictured above: Dr Jamie Strachan (centre) from ACSA council presents accreditation to Dr Sara Law (right) and Dr William Birts (on left). (Image supplied by Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust)

The anaesthetists at Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust have been recognised by the Royal College of Anaesthetists for providing the highest quality care to their patients.

In June 2019 the anaesthetists at Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust were awarded the prestigious Anaesthesia Clinical Services Accreditation (ACSA) from the Royal College of Anaesthetists (RCoA). The official presentation of the accreditation took place on Thursday 19th September 2019.

ACSA is the RCoA’s peer-reviewed scheme that promotes quality improvement and the highest standards of anaesthetic service. Departments are expected to demonstrate high standards in areas such as patient experience, patient safety and clinical leadership to receive the accreditation.

Dr Sara Law, Specialty Doctor in Anaesthetics, ACSA Lead, at Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust said: ‘Our path to ACSA accreditation, a long and occasionally frustrating journey, has, ultimately, been very rewarding. The whole department has engaged and worked together developing our service to meet the high standards of patient care and safety required by the college. The ACSA process has also helped us push forward with some much needed equipment and infrastructure improvements.

The three-day site visit allowed us to showcase our achievements. The review team were particularly impressed with the pre-operative assessment service that prepares patients for surgery, the department’s strong emphasis on the safety and quality of patient care and the collaborative teamwork displayed by all members of theatre staff.

We are very proud to be the 29th department to achieve accreditation and to have contributed towards improving anaesthetic care in the UK still further.‘

Professor Ravi Mahajan, President of the Royal College of Anaesthetists, said: ‘I would like to offer my personal congratulations to the entire anaesthetic department on achieving ACSA accreditation. It is richly deserved and demonstrates their commitment to providing the best possible care for their patients.

Patient safety is at the heart of what we do as a medical Royal College and it was impressive to see the team’s integrated working across all staff and hospital sites.

It has been great to see the department going beyond the standards and delivering ideas which will be helpful for other hospitals in the ACSA network.‘

Dr Anile Tore, ACSA lead reviewer said: ‘Congratulations to everyone in the Anaesthetic department at Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust on achieving a very highly deserved ACSA accreditation. Well done.

The review team were very impressed with the engagement of all members of the staff including senior managers. Standardisation of practice and application of policies across all sites within the Trust was particularly noteworthy.

In addition to meeting the ACSA standards the department demonstrated many areas of excellent innovative practice that the visiting team have highlighted for sharing through the ACSA network.‘

*Source of article : Press release from Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust.