NHS colleagues working in elective surgical hubs can now access new GIRFT guidance advising how to increase their volume of high-volume low complexity spinal procedures to help reduce waiting lists more quickly.
Getting Spine Ready is GIRFT’s latest addition to its suite of elective surgical hub guidance, addressing common misconceptions and offering advice on how to introduce spinal cases into established hubs.
The guide aims to dispel some of the myths relayed to the GIRFT team on their visits to trusts in England – eg; that spinal surgery isn’t suitable for elective hubs, that it needs complicated post-operative care or expensive equipment – and includes useful advice on getting started quickly.
There are currently 110 elective surgical hubs in England (October 2024) and they have been proven to play a major part in helping to reduce the surgical waiting list backlog. However, fewer than 20% carry out spinal surgical activity.
GIRFT’s clinical advisor for spinal services, Vinay Jasani, was one of the authors of the guidance. He said:
“Spine surgery waiting lists have improved massively thanks to all the hard work put in by all, but further reductions in waiting times can be achieved by adding spinal surgery as one of the specialities that benefit from high volume low complexity work being carried out in elective hubs. We hope this document will allay any concerns about managing patients with spinal surgical problems in elective hubs and help to ensure that hubs are as accessible to as broad a range of patients as possible, while putting patient safety and well-being at the centre of decision-making.”
Henry Budd is the clinical lead for spine surgery at the Royal Devon University Hospital and clinical lead for Devon ICB spinal services, where GIRFT has been supporting elective recovery work. He endorsed the guidance and said:
“Spinal surgery is evolving in the UK. The 2023 launch of the ambulatory spinal microsurgery pathway at the Devon Surgical Hub, with the support of GIRFT, has been instrumental in driving our elective recovery and repurposing our main site theatres for urgent, complex and emergency cases, resulting in a 96% day case rate at 12 months and top five productivity benchmarked across all UK centres. The new way of working is here and paying dividends for patients across our system.”
