Benenden Hospital has officially begun a process to seek accreditation from the Royal College of Anaesthetists.
The Hospital has entered into the first stages of the programme and hopes to have the accreditation before 2018. If successful Benenden could become the first independent hospital in the UK to get this prestigious seal of approval.
An initial meeting with the Royal College took place at the Hospital at the end of July. Representatives from the College presented to the Hospital outlining the benefits of having accreditation, the standards which need to be met and the accreditation process. They met key personnel at the Hospital including members of the Hospital Executive, the Lead Consultant Anaesthetist Professor Baha Al-Shaikh and Senior Operating Department Practitioner Simon Brooks, who is leading on the initiative.
Simon recently visited the Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust which is currently seeking accreditation for some of its hospitals, to learn more about the process and criteria which need to be met.
There are currently around 60 hospitals in the UK who have this accreditation. The Anaesthesia Clinical Services Accreditation (ACSA) is a voluntary scheme for anaesthetic departments in the UK to formally and actively demonstrate their commitment to high quality service provision and improvement.
ACSA is based on a set of standards with the standards focussing on the patient’s care pathway, equipment, facilities and staffing, the patient experience, clinical governance and sub specialities.
Simon Brooks said: “What it is really all about is trying to do our best by the patient. We already have a lot in place and the standards we have in our anaesthetic rooms are second to none, but we can always do more. Also it would be great for the Hospital to have this accreditation to recognise the standards we have here, to recognise our hard work, to give a clear message to our patients and to help us attract the best staff.”
Published on 14 August 2017