General Surgery Clinical Network

Clinical Lead: Mr. Salman Mirza (WHT), Project Manager: Aradhika Heer (BCPC)

The General Surgery clinical network was a late edition to the clinical improvement programme but identified as a gap for the Black Country in its pursuit of GIRFT/HVLC priority metrics.

A clinical lead was appointed in late November 2022, with support provided by the PMO, they engaged key service leads from partner Trusts across the system to drive forward the development of a work programme. Initially this has been focused on benchmarking performance and quality using Model Hospital data, together with an initial focus on key GIRFT priority pathways.

Early work has included the participation in the GIRFT review of the Black Country by the National team in which the clinical lead shared initial thoughts as the network prepares for 23-24. Alongside some key priorities, the key outputs of previous GIRFT review (as outlined in the 2022 GIRFT letter) are likely to be the start-point for the General Surgery clinical network and includes a focus on:

  1. LoS <2 days Emergency Appendectomy. Wide variation across Trusts and all below median
  2. Median LoS for emergency cholecystitis. Walsall demonstrates best performing Trust in country, with LoS of 2-days. Other three Trusts are above the 3-day median.
  3. Inguinal Hernia
  4. Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy

More Information

You can read more about the General Surgery Clinical Network in the BCPC Annual Report 2022-23.