New Greater Manchester Trauma Network will save lives
New Greater Manchester Trauma Network will save lives
The way that major trauma services are provided for patients across Greater Manchester is changing.
Greater Manchester is one of 22 areas to benefit from a Major Trauma Network, providing specialised care for patients who experience a life threatening major trauma. The changes will affect only a small number of patients with the most seriously life threatening injuries.
The new way of working will mean rapid access to assessment, treatment and rehabilitation, and is expected to save 20 lives every year within Greater Manchester. The changes will also lead to reduced the levels of disability in people who survive a major trauma.
Major trauma is life threatening or life changing serious physical injury, which typically involves more than one injury. This might include traumatic injury requiring amputation of a limb, severe knife and gunshot wounds, major head injury, multiple injuries to different parts of the body, spinal injury and severe burns.
Previously, patients who suffered a major trauma would have been taken to the nearest hospital. As some local hospitals were not equipped with the right facilities or specialist teams to treat patients with life-threatening injuries quickly, this approach often meant that patients could end up being transferred, causing delays in them receiving the best possible treatment.
Greater Manchester’s Trauma Centre will be staffed by specialist teams with access to the best diagnostic and treatment facilities. The service will treat adults and children. The service is being implemented in a phased approach and will eventually provide care 24 hours a day, every day of the year.
The Greater Manchester Trauma Centre will work as part of a network of NHS organisations operating from the moment a 999 call comes in to the time, maybe months later, when a patient returns home.
Greater Manchester’s Trauma Centre will be provided across three hospital sites working together, these three hospital sites are:
• Wythenshawe Hospital (University Hospital of South Manchester NHS Foundation Trust)
• Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust, and
• Manchester Royal Infirmary (Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust)
This Collaborative Centre will be supported by a number of Trauma Units (Royal Oldham Hospital, Stepping Hill Hospital, The Albert Edward Infirmary), and other NHS services across Greater Manchester providing different aspects of a patients care.
The changes in Greater Manchester will be implemented over a phased six month period between April and October 2012. Initially the service will be available from 9am until 5pm, 7 days a week. Later in the year this will be extended to 8am until 8pm, and in time the service will be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.