Warrington and Halton Teaching Hospitals (WHH) have been awarded JAG accreditation for its endoscopy services and received the highest praise from the Joint Advisory Group (JAG), following its review in February 2022. This accreditation is formal recognition that an endoscopy service has demonstrated its competence to deliver against endoscopy Global Rating Scale (GRS) standards.
WHH operates endoscopy services at both Warrington and Halton hospitals, performing over 10000 endoscopy procedures a year. The endoscopy service offers a full range of diagnostic and complex treatments including recent accreditation for Bowel Cancer Screening. Both sites operate to an equally exceptional standards and “easily some of the highest standards we have seen in the UK” according to the report.
The team comprises of Consultant Gastroenterologists, Consultant Surgeons, Speciality Doctors, Nurse Endoscopists, Nurses and a dedicated administrative and management team. The report states “the whole team demonstrated pride and passion in their work and all team members interviewed clearly cared about the standards of patient care.”
The JAG report summarised that “the service epitomises what a quality, safe endoscopy service with embedded standards is all about, it was a pleasure to assess this service. Congratulations on a job well done!”
The service was highly commended for the following.
- Excellent leadership demonstrated by a supportive and encouraging culture for staff learning, training and progression
- Service developments amidst the challenges of the pandemic
- Providing an excellent endoscopic service for patients with acute upper GI hemorrhages
- Both units are well organized with excellent patient centered pathways. Units are well decorated, clean, and tidy offering spacious procedure rooms. The waiting areas have good visual displays giving patient feedback information, including what to expect on the patient journey.
- Outstanding examples of individualized care and innovation, patients interviewed expressed high praise for care received.
Dr Sundaramoorthy Bharathi, endoscopy clinical lead said: “We are delighted to receive this accreditation with the amazing feedback for our endoscopy services.
“The team works tirelessly to ensure we deliver the very highest standards of safe and effective care for our patients; it is fantastic to be recognised with this quality standard. It is a fantastic achievement for the team.”
JAG accreditation is awarded to high-quality gastrointestinal endoscopy services and promotes improvement by highlighting areas of best practice, areas for change and encouraging the continued development of the clinical service. The scheme is regarded as one of the most innovative and effective in the healthcare sector and has been used as a model for other similar schemes in the UK and overseas. It has four assessment areas: clinical quality, patient experience, workforce, and training. Accredited services are required to submit evidence annually to demonstrate that they are continuing to meet the standards and have a five-yearly on-site assessment.
