Golden Jubilee, National Hospital, Clydebank

The need

The endoscopy department identified a need to increase capacity. A mobile endoscopy facility was considered crucial to elective care catch-up and to meet ongoing treatment demand.

The contract was supported by the endoscopy and urology diagnostic recovery and renewal plan, backed by £70million of Scottish Government investment to help hospitals return to pre-pandemic treatment levels, and go beyond. 

The plan

The plan was to provide a single mobile endoscopy facility that would remain on-site for a minimum of 12 months, with the opportunity to extend at the end of the contract term. The aim of this solution was to ensure that elective capacity was both maintained and increased, and to drastically reduce patient waiting times.

The solution

A single mobile endoscopy facility was delivered and installed in June 2021. As a standalone facility, it operated without the need for access to the main hospital site. This high-quality Healthcare Space was designed for clinicians to perform both upper and lower procedures, including gastroscopies, colonoscopies, and sigmoidoscopies. 

We provided equipment for one procedure room, including a set of 290 endoscopes, stacks, and scope guides. In addition to unit facilitators, we also provided a compliment of staff, including nurses to work alongside the Endoscopist, and endoscope decontamination technicians.

The outcome

The facility is operational 7 days a week, 8am—6pm with up to 24 JAG points achieved per day. There have been no periods of downtime and therefore no disruption to hospital functions or elective care lists. 

The Unit Facilitator worked closely with the Trust’s staff, and those provided from an insourcing staffing provider (ID Medical in this instance), from the early weeks of facility usage to throughout the life of the contract to increase familiarity of the unit. The hospital staff’s high satisfaction with the dual procedure unit is demonstrated through their extension of the contract until June 2023.

Our partnership with Olympus

Olympus provided the scopes for the procedure room, service the equipment and schedule annual updates for scope handling, to ensure everything runs smoothly. 

In the unlikely event of an equipment issue arising when staff are performing a procedure, Olympus are more than happy to come in and support to resolve these issues as soon as possible.

Our partnership with ID Medical 

ID Medical provided endoscopy-trained clinical staff and expertly trained nurses to cover for the Vanguard staff when they took annual leave. The hospital’s endoscopists rated the ID Medical clinical staff very highly in terms of their professionalism and level of expertise. The staff provided by ID Medical are also managed by Vanguard’s staff, within the partnership, to maintain the role of escalation.