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BACKGROUND: Patients who attend emergency surgical services are entering an unfamiliar environment whilst often being unwell and in pain. Patient satisfaction in emergency surgical units is often low due to poor communication with attendees and long wait times. METHODS: A pilot patient questionnaire identified areas where patient satisfaction was low during attendance at the surgical assessment unit (SAU). The aim of this intervention was to improve patient satisfaction with their experience whilst attending the SAU. An education video was filmed to address the areas where services were falling short of expectations, and this was played in the waiting room. Further questionnaire results tailored the frequency of the video to achieve maximum impact. RESULTS: Data were collected at three time points: firstly, prior to the introduction of the video (n=34); secondly, with the video played hourly (n=15); and finally with the video played every 30 minutes at a higher volume (n=15). Mean satisfaction scores after the final cycle improved to 7.3 from 4.9 (p=0.0009). Additionally, 94% of patients agreed that the video was in keeping with their personal experience of the SAU and agreed that the video improved their understanding of what to expect from the visit. CONCLUSIONS: Interventions that improve communication with patients and adjust their expectations play an important role in improving patient satisfaction and their overall perception of care. This can be achieved with a simple patient information video.
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Introduction In 2020, the British Society of Gastroenterologists (BSG), the Association of Coloproctology of Great Britain and Ireland (ACPGBI), and Public Health England (PHE) published joint guidelines regarding post-polypectomy surveillance. This study aimed to establish clinician adherence at the Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust to the 2020 guidelines compared to the now-retired 2010 guidelines. Materials and Methods Data on 152 patients treated under the 2010 guidelines and 133 patients treated under the 2020 guidelines were collected retrospectively from the hospital's colonoscopy database. Data were analysed to determine whether patients who had a colonoscopy fulfilled BSG/ACPGBI/PHE guidelines for follow-up. Costs were estimated using the price of colonoscopy in the NHS National Schedule. Results Approximately 41.4% (63/152) of patients were adherent to the 2010 guidelines while 66.2% (88/133) of patients were adherent to the 2020 guidelines. The difference in adherence rate was 24.7% (95% confidence interval 13.5% - 35.9%, p<0.0001). Nearly 37% (35/95) of patients who would have been followed up under the 2010 guidelines did not receive any follow-up as a result of the 2020 guidelines. This represents a cost saving of £36,892.28 per year in our hospital. Approximately 47% (28/60) of patients treated under the 2020 guidelines had surveillance colonoscopy planned when the guidelines recommended no follow-up. If every clinician were fully adherent to the 2020 guidelines, then a further £29,513.82 per year would have been saved. Discussion and Conclusion Following the introduction of the 2020 guidelines, adherence to polyp surveillance guidelines increased in our hospital. However, nearly half of the colonoscopies were performed unnecessarily due to non-adherence. Furthermore, our results demonstrate that the 2020 guidelines have decreased the need for follow-up.
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BACKGROUND: The United Kingdom government introduced lockdown restrictions for the first time on 23 March 2020 due to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. These were partially lifted on 15 June and further eased on 4 July. Changes in social behaviour, including increased alcohol consumption were described at the time. However, there were no data available to consider the impact of these changes on the number of alcohol-related disease admissions, specifically alcohol-related acute pancreatitis (AP). This study evaluated the trend of alcohol-related AP admissions at a single centre during the initial COVID-19 lockdown. AIM: To evaluate the trend in alcohol-related AP admissions at a single centre during the initial COVID-19 lockdown in the United Kingdom. METHODS: All patients admitted with alcohol-related AP from March to September 2016 to 2020 were considered in this study. Patient demographics, their initial presentation with AP, any recurrent admissions, disease severity and length of stay, were evaluated using ANOVA and χ 2 and Kruskal-Wallis tests. RESULTS: One hundred and thirty-six patients were included in the study. The highest total number of AP admissions was seen in March-September 2019 and the highest single-month period was in March-May 2020. Admissions for first-time presentations of AP were highest in 2020 compared to other year groups and were significantly higher compared to previous years, for example, 2016 (P < 0.05). Furthermore, the rate of admissions decreased by 38.89% between March-May 2020 and June-September 2020 (P < 0.05), coinciding with the easing of lockdown restrictions. This significant decrease was not observed in the previous year groups during those same time periods. Admissions for recurrent AP were highest in 2019. The median length of hospital stay did not differ between patients from each of the year groups. CONCLUSION: An increased number of admissions for alcohol-related AP were observed during months when lockdown restrictions were enforced; a fall in figures was noted when restrictions were eased.
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BACKGROUND: Gallbladder carcinoma is often found incidentally on histopathologic examination after cholecystectomy-this is referred as incidental gallbladder carcinoma (IGC). Routine vs selective histopathological assessment of gallbladders is under debate and this study evaluates the role of regular specimens' examination, based on a single-centre analysis of incidence, clinical and histopathological aspects of IGC. METHODS: Patients who underwent cholecystectomy, between July 2010 and January 2020, were considered. Exclusion criteria were age under 18 and preoperative diagnosis of GB carcinoma. Demographic, clinical and histopathological data were retrospectively collected, continuous variables with a normal distribution were evaluated with Student's t-test and ANOVA. RESULTS: Some 5779 patients were included. The female/male ratio was 2.5:1. Chronic cholecystitis (CC) was the most common finding on specimens (99.3%), IGC was found in six cases (0.1%). In the latter group, there were 5 women and patients were older than those with benign disease-73.7 [Formula: see text] 5.38 years vs 55.8 [Formula: see text] 0.79 years (p < 0.05). In all the cases, the GB was abnormal on intraoperative inspection and beside cancer, histopathology showed associated CC and/or dysplasia. Upon diagnosis, disease was at advanced stage-one stage II, one stage IIIA, one stage IIIB, three stage IVA. Two patients are alive, three died of disease progression-median survival was 7 months (range 2-14). CONCLUSIONS: In this series, ICG was rare, occurred most commonly in old adult women and was diagnosed at an advanced stage. In all the cases, the GB was abnormal intraoperatively, therefore macroscopic GB anomalies demand histopathological assessment of the specimen.
