July 2012


North West Respiratory Clinical Pathway Team - winners from the 2012 awards, offering examples of good practice

Download the full report or see below for summaries

Home Oxygen and Review Service of the year - Oxygen Assessment Team- Chorley District General Hospital
Benefit to the health economy:
The toolkits identify a portfolio of costing analysis that we have at our disposal to demonstrate the effective impact of our service. At its peak our oxygen invoice was £82k per month and currently stands at £47k per month, thus ensuring the best use of NHS resources. We have been able to document a total of £600k saving over a 3 year period.

Quick win:

We have already shared the toolkit across the Northwest Region and regularly offer support and advice. I would recommend using all available resources to properly analyse the available information as this analysis leads to a more efficient and effective ways of working and ensuring the best use of NHS resources.

Emergency oxygen service won for HSJ and Nursing Times Patient Safety Awards 2011, March 2011

A submission from the British Thoracic  Society, Salford Royal Foundation Trust and Southend University Hospital Foundation Trust won in the patient safety in clinical practice category.    The teams estimate that too much oxygen may cause 2000-4000 avoidable deaths a year with COPD. There is probably nothing else that can alter an outcome in COPD as much as giving the correct oxygen.

See here

British Thoracic Society  Oxygen Champions and Audit

The BTS has set up Oxygen Champions in each acute trust. The BTS did a recent audit and the uptake of the Emergency Oxygen Guideline is increasing quite rapidly. However, there are still areas where the guideline has not been fully instigated.  The BTS Emergency Oxygen Audit will continue yearly and is now recommended for inclusion in the quality accounts from 2010-2011. This means that all the hospital results will be published.