In the past few weeks swine flu has no longer been a source of humour. Today it has been headlined in the MWM that a young, pregnant woman has been flown from Scotland to Sweden for a modern treatment known as extra corporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), which involves the patient's blood being circulated with oxygen in an artificial lung before being brought back into the body.
The 5 beds available for this treatment in the UK are full so our (Scotland's) health bosses, in consultation with Nicola Sturgeon, made an immediate decision to find a country which did have a bed for the procedure and fly her to Sweden.
Nicola Sturgeon stated today :
"The extreme rarity of the procedure she requires means that there are pan-European arrangements in place for sharing facilities when any one country's unit is full, as in the UK's case at present."
I wasn't aware there were pen-European arrangements for such medical emergencies, but I'm delighted to hear about them. My confidence in Scotland's NHS has increased knowing the 'people in power' will make decisions without having to do the sums first.
After listening, on radio, to a doctor at the Stockholm hospital saying they were doing everything possible for this woman and her baby, he stressed the treatment alone will not save her life, as that was 'her part of the deal'.
May she pull through and survive the intrusion of the H1N1 virus into her life. I'm sure I hear a 'And So Say All of Us' throughout the land.
Other information sources: the Herald
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12 comments:
Yes indeed SR. I'm also rather concerned to learn that the UK has only 5 beds available for this type of treatment though. Is the condition really so rare?
I'm not sure at all GV. I don't know the name given to the problem. Seems as if this treatment is rare though with only 5 beds available.
A news item on this suggested that is such a new procedure only one hospital is running it in The UK so far. I still believe there are issues with The NHS we are still not being told about, however.
May she make a swift recovery and give birth to a healthy baby.
I've just googled it for Sweden OR. It seems they actually have a centre solely designed for this treatment. It can't be so new.
http://www.karolinska.se/en/AstridLindgrensBarnsjukhus/Focus-on-the-child/Pediatric-Departments/ECMO-Center/?epslanguage=EN
5 beds is the minimum the NHS thought it could get away with. It's probably certain that demand is actually and always higher, regardless of swine flu.
There is a list somewhere of specific conditions and NHS hospitals designated to deal with them. I've seen it on the internet and bookmarked it on a different computer.
There is one condition with which I am familiar. There are two designated hospitals, one in Manchester, one in London. Neither, obviously, in Scotland.
Because of what I've heard about the one in Manchester I go to London.
Come up to Aberdeen and wait around, and wait and wait.
You're right John. The vast sums of money ploughed into the NHS are not spent wisely, we all know that. Unfortunately it has now been going on for so long, it's become more or less acceptable.
My local trust does its best and has areas of excellence working with the university medical school but others trusts have a long way to go yet.
The NHS here in Scotland has improved I would say in the past few years. If only we could make a big hole in the statistics for hospital acquired infections we would be well on the road to having a health service which was the pride of the nation.
If you come across that link you mention, I'd be pleased to see it.
Seems to be a communication problem up your way FL between GPs and specialists. Statistics are only as good as the questions they answer.
I should think this has been going on there for years and it's not just something that started since the SNP have been the government. Maybe I'm wrong ...
I got all modern and re-ordered my two repeat prescriptions ( nothing special ) via my GP Surgerys' shiney new website.
I got their e-mail confirming that my scrip was at the Pharmacy that I had indicated ( from a list of five offered ). Went there two days later but after much searching and waiting was told that it was not there and never had been. One of the staff nipped next door to the Surgery reception and returned to tell me that they had printed up a new scrip which was waiting for or the Dr. to sign it.
It was 5pm on a Friday and the usual suspects were queing out of the surgery door clamouring for their weekend fix so I went home scripless thinking " and they call this progress".
Jings banned what a swanky surgery you've got. Pity the swanky system doesn't work. That happens here too even with the old manual system and the chemist's never that helpful.
Systems are only as good as the creators.
If my memory serves me -Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation comes in two main forms - one of which is similar to the 'heart-lung machine' often used in cardio-pulmonary bypass surgery. Only once in my career in Critical Care did I see it used outside theatre in an adult case. It required the constant clinical management of a variety of anaesthetists, specialist technicians, medical and surgical Consultants, theatre nurses and critcal care nurses.
With Scotlands adult and paediatric cardiac surgery centres, staff and services at a premium, the unique skills and resources needed to implement this complex procedure at the necessary level of expertise coupled with the rarity of it's need outside specialist theatres - it is not surprising that there is an international agreement to care for such patients at the few centres where all the skilled personnel are available.
My best wishes for this patient, her baby and her family.
Hi Clarinda. Super explanation thanks and I hope others aren't so confused now either.
It also explains why the link I gave to the karolinska clinic has the home page graphic with a baby on it and the link is also connected to their pediatric departments.
Mine too.
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