Cardiology and children’s services at Leeds General Infirmary showcased

Staff at Leeds General Infirmary have welcomed Minister of State for Health and Social Care Karin Smyth MP, showcasing state-of-the-art heart care as well as the decisive steps being taken to care for more children and young people.

Minister Smyth visited the Cardio-respiratory Catheter Labs and Leeds Children’s Hospital to see first-hand the high quality, timely patient care being provided.

Firstly, Minister Smyth met the team in the Cardio-respiratory Catheter Labs. The Cardiology team provide specialist cardiac care to the wider West Yorkshire population covering around three million people and providing the country’s largest acute heart attack service. They are using some of the latest innovative equipment and techniques to diagnose and treat heart conditions while maximising efficiency and productivity within the service. The team uses the Leeds Improvement Method, a lean management method which is embedded across the organisation, to complement this state-of-the-art equipment and improve efficiency and safety across the work they do.

Following this, Minister Smyth visited Leeds Children’s Hospital to hear about the team’s efforts to reduce surgical waiting times for patients, meeting with patients, families and staff. The team shared the results from recent Super Saturday events which have been used to trial innovative approaches with some schemes becoming business as usual. Super Saturday initiatives have helped paediatric surgery and urology reduce waits for patients with no children now waiting over 65 weeks for surgery.

The Minister was interested to hear what the Leeds Children’s Hospital team have been doing to address health inequalities for families in Leeds such as how the Asthma team are working with partners to help improve air quality in families’ homes.

The Minister said: “It was fantastic to see the brilliant and innovative efforts of the Leeds Cath Lab and High Intensity Theatre teams, which are cutting the waiting list backlog and delivering timely care for patients.

“We want to take the best of the NHS to the rest of the NHS, driving innovative practices alongside our commitment to deliver an extra 40,000 appointments every week to cut waiting lists. This is a key part of our 10-Year Health Plan to radically reform the health service and build and NHS fit for the future.”

The visit also touched on Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust’s plans for a new hospital building at the LGI, which will include a new adults’ hospital, a new home for Leeds Children’s Hospital, and one of the UK’s largest single site maternity and neonatal centre. Minister Smyth also heard about plans for an Innovation Village at the LGI, harnessing the wealth of expertise and knowledge across the city and create thousands of jobs in health innovation, engineering, financial and business services, data analytics and digital technologies.

Dame Linda Pollard, Chair of Leeds Teaching Hospitals, said: “I was delighted to welcome Minister Smyth to the Leeds General Infirmary. I know that she was very impressed with what she heard from our teams, and she spoke about learning from best practice and sharing that across the NHS. That’s what we do so well here in Leeds – driving forward innovation, thinking differently and ensuring we keep patients at the heart of everything we do.”

Professor Phil Wood, Chief Executive at Leeds Teaching Hospitals, said: “We have so much to be proud of at Leeds and I am delighted Minister Smyth was able to speak with our brilliant teams in Cardiology and Leeds Children’s Hospital. It was also a really helpful opportunity to speak about the wider challenges and opportunities facing the NHS and locally here at the Trust and how we approach them.”