Unwarranted variation and the goal of net zero for the NHS in England: exploring the link between efficiency working, patient outcomes and carbon footprint.

In 2020 the NHS in England set a target of reaching net zero carbon emissions by 2040. Progress has already been made towards this goal, with substantial reductions in the use of environmentally harmful anaesthetic gases, such as desflurane, in recent years. Where an effective replacement already exists, changing practice to use low carbon alternatives is relatively easy to achieve, but much greater challenges lie ahead. The Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) programme is a clinically-led, data-driven clinical improvement initiative with a focus on reducing unwarranted variation in clinical practice and patient outcomes. Reducing unwarranted variation can improve patient care and service efficiency, and can also support the drive to net zero. In this article we set out what the GIRFT programme is doing to support sustainable healthcare in England, why it is uniquely positioned to support this goal and what the future challenges, barriers, enablers and opportunities are likely to be in the drive to net zero.

Age and the anaesthetist: considerations for the individual anaesthetist and workforce planning: Guidelines about the ageing anaesthetic workforce from the Association of Anaesthetists: Guidelines for the ageing anaesthetic workforce from the Association of Anaesthetists.

There is clear evidence of a growing workforce gap and this is compounded by demographic data that show the current workforce is ageing. Within the current workforce, more doctors are taking voluntary early retirement and the loss of these experienced clinicians from departments can have wide-ranging effects. Older doctors are at risk of age-related health problems (e.g. sight, musculoskeletal, menopause) and are more susceptible to the effects of fatigue, which may increase the risk of error and or complaint. The purpose of this working party and advocacy campaign was to address concerns over the number of consultants retiring at the earliest opportunity and whether a different approach could extend the working career of consultant anaesthetists and SAS doctors. This could be viewed as 'pacing your career'. The earlier this is considered in a clinician's career the greater the potential mitigation on individuals.

Safety of day-case paediatric tonsillectomy in England: an analysis of administrative data for the Getting It Right First Time programme.

We used the Hospital Episodes Statistics database to investigate unwarranted variation in the rates Trusts discharged children the same day after scheduled tonsillectomy and associations with adverse postoperative outcomes. We included children aged 2-18 years who underwent tonsillectomy between 1 April 2014 and 31 March 2019. We stratified analyses by category of Trust, non-specialist or specialist, defined as without or with paediatric critical care facilities, respectively. We adjusted analyses for age, sex, year of surgery and aspects of presentation and procedure type. Of 101,180 children who underwent tonsillectomy at non-specialist Trusts, 62,926 (62%) were discharged the same day, compared with 24,138/48,755 (50%) at specialist Trusts. The adjusted proportion of children discharged the same day as tonsillectomy ranged from 5% to 100% at non-specialist Trusts and 9% to 88% at specialist Trusts. Same-day discharge was not independently associated with an increased rate of 30-day emergency re-admission at non-specialist Trusts but was associated with a modest rate increase at specialist Trusts; adjusted probability 8.0% vs 7.7%, odds ratio (95%CI) 1.14 (1.05-1.24). Rates of adverse postoperative outcomes were similar for Trusts that discharged >70% children the same day as tonsillectomy compared with Trusts that discharged <50% children the same day, for both non-specialist and specialist Trust categories. We found no consistent evidence that day-case tonsillectomy is associated with poorer outcomes. All Trusts, but particularly specialist centres, should explore reasons for low day-case rates and should aim for rates >70%.

Development and internal validation of a model for postoperative morbidity in adults undergoing major elective colorectal surgery: the peri-operative quality improvement programme (PQIP) colorectal risk model.

Over 1.5 million major surgical procedures take place in the UK NHS each year and approximately 25% of patients develop at least one complication. The most widely used risk-adjustment model for postoperative morbidity in the UK is the physiological and operative severity score for the enumeration of mortality and morbidity. However, this model was derived more than 30 years ago and now overestimates the risk of morbidity. In addition, contemporary definitions of some model predictors are markedly different compared with when the tool was developed. A second model used in clinical practice is the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Programme risk model; this provides a risk estimate for a range of postoperative complications. This model, widely used in North America, is not open source and therefore cannot be applied to patient populations in other settings. Data from a prospective multicentre clinical dataset of 118 NHS hospitals (the peri-operative quality improvement programme) were used to develop a bespoke risk-adjustment model for postoperative morbidity. Patients aged ≥ 18 years who underwent colorectal surgery were eligible for inclusion. Postoperative morbidity was defined using the postoperative morbidity survey at postoperative day 7. Thirty-one candidate variables were considered for inclusion in the model. Death or morbidity occurred by postoperative day 7 in 3098 out of 11,646 patients (26.6%). Twelve variables were incorporated into the final model, including (among others): Rockwood clinical frailty scale; body mass index; and index of multiple deprivation quintile. The C-statistic was 0.672 (95%CI 0.660-0.684), with a bootstrap optimism corrected C-statistic of 0.666 at internal validation. The model demonstrated good calibration across the range of morbidity estimates with a mean slope gradient of predicted risk of 0.959 (95%CI 0.894-1.024) with an index-corrected intercept of -0.038 (95%CI -0.112-0.036) at internal validation. Our model provides parsimonious case-mix adjustment to quantify risk of morbidity on postoperative day 7 for a UK population of patients undergoing major colorectal surgery. Despite the C-statistic of < 0.7, our model outperformed existing risk-models in widespread use. We therefore recommend application in case-mix adjustment, where incorporation into a continuous monitoring tool such as the variable life adjusted display or exponentially-weighted moving average-chart could support high-level monitoring and quality improvement of risk-adjusted outcome at the population level.

[Aggression regulation in eating disorders: evidence for a brief body and movement oriented intervention]. / Agressieregulatie bij eetstoornissen: evidentie voor een kortdurende module psychomotorische therapie1.

BACKGROUND: Individuals with eating disorders tend to internalise their anger and aggression excessively. However, an evidence-based intervention, targeted on this persistent issue, was missing until now. Therefore, a body and movement oriented intervention was developed, which supports patients to reframe and redirect anger and aggression against the destructive influence of the eating disorder.
AIM: To study the effectiveness of the aggression regulation intervention.
METHOD: The intervention was tested in a first randomised controlled trial (RCT) in an outpatient setting and in a two-center RCT in a multidisciplinary day hospital setting. Coping with anger was measured by the Self-Expression and Control Scale (SECS). Eating disorder pathology was measured by the Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire (EDE-Q).
RESULTS: Both RCTs delivered first evidence for the brief body and movement oriented intervention to reduce excessive anger internalisation in individuals with eating disorders. Moreover, in the outpatient trial the eating disorder pathology was significantly more reduced in the intervention group compared to the control group.
CONCLUSION: There is first evidence for the effectiveness of a body and movement oriented approach of reducing excessive anger internalisation in individuals with eating disorders.

Inter-observer reliability of preoperative cardiopulmonary exercise test interpretation: a cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: Despite the increasing importance of cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) for preoperative risk assessment, the reliability of CPET interpretation is unclear. We aimed to assess inter-observer reliability of preoperative CPET. METHODS: We conducted a prospective, multi-centre, observational study of preoperative CPET interpretation. Participants were professionals with previous experience or training in CPET, assessed by a standardized questionnaire. Each participant interpreted 100 tests using standardized software. The CPET variables of interest were oxygen consumption at the anaerobic threshold (AT) and peak oxygen consumption (VO2 peak). Inter-observer reliability was measured using intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) with a random effects model. Results are presented as ICC with 95% confidence interval, where ICC of 1 represents perfect agreement and ICC of 0 represents no agreement. RESULTS: Participants included 8/28 (28.6%) clinical physiologists, 10 (35.7%) junior doctors, and 10 (35.7%) consultant doctors. The median previous experience was 140 (inter-quartile range 55-700) CPETs. After excluding the first 10 tests (acclimatization) for each participant and missing data, the primary analysis of AT and VO2 peak included 2125 and 2414 tests, respectively. Inter-observer agreement for numerical values of AT [ICC 0.83 (0.75-0.90)] and VO2 peak [ICC 0.88 (0.84-0.92)] was good. In a post hoc analysis, inter-observer agreement for identification of the presence of a reportable AT was excellent [ICC 0.93 (0.91-0.95)] and a reportable VO2 peak was moderate [0.73 (0.64-0.80)]. CONCLUSIONS: Inter-observer reliability of interpretation of numerical values of two commonly used CPET variables was good (>80%). However, inter-observer agreement regarding the presence of a reportable value was less consistent.

Perioperative cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET): consensus clinical guidelines on indications, organization, conduct, and physiological interpretation.

The use of perioperative cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) to evaluate the risk of adverse perioperative events and inform the perioperative management of patients undergoing surgery has increased over the last decade. CPET provides an objective assessment of exercise capacity preoperatively and identifies the causes of exercise limitation. This information may be used to assist clinicians and patients in decisions about the most appropriate surgical and non-surgical management during the perioperative period. Information gained from CPET can be used to estimate the likelihood of perioperative morbidity and mortality, to inform the processes of multidisciplinary collaborative decision making and consent, to triage patients for perioperative care (ward vs critical care), to direct preoperative interventions and optimization, to identify new comorbidities, to evaluate the effects of neoadjuvant cancer therapies, to guide prehabilitation and rehabilitation, and to guide intraoperative anaesthetic practice. With the rapid uptake of CPET, standardization is key to ensure valid, reproducible results that can inform clinical decision making. Recently, an international Perioperative Exercise Testing and Training Society has been established (POETTS www.poetts.co.uk) promoting the highest standards of care for patients undergoing exercise testing, training, or both in the perioperative setting. These clinical cardiopulmonary exercise testing guidelines have been developed by consensus by the Perioperative Exercise Testing and Training Society after systematic literature review. The guidelines have been endorsed by the Association of Respiratory Technology and Physiology (ARTP).

The role of spin states in the catalytic mechanism of the intra- and extradiol cleavage of catechols by O2.

Iron-dependent enzymes and biomimetic iron complexes can catalyze the ring cleavage of very inert, aromatic compounds. The mechanisms of these transformations and the factors that lead either to extradiol cleavage or intradiol cleavage have not been fully understood. By using density functional theory we have elucidated the mechanism of the catalytic cycle for two biomimetic complexes, and explained the difference in the experimentally obtained products.

Using predicted 30 day mortality to plan postoperative colorectal surgery care: a cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Preoperative identification of high-risk surgical patients might help to reduce postoperative morbidity and mortality. Using a patient's predicted 30 day mortality to plan postoperative high-dependency unit (HDU) care after elective colorectal surgery might be associated with reduced postoperative morbidity. METHODS: The 30 day postoperative mortality was predicted for 504 elective colorectal surgical patients in a preoperative clinic. The prediction was used to determine postoperative surgical ward or HDU care. Those with a predicted 30 day mortality of 1-3% mortality, and thus deemed at intermediate risk, had either planned HDU care (n=68) or planned ward care (n=139). The main outcome measures were emergency laparotomy and unplanned critical care admission. RESULTS: There were more emergency laparotomies and unplanned critical care admissions in patients with a predicted 30 day mortality of 1-3% who went to an HDU after surgery compared with patients who went to a ward: 0 vs 14 (10%), P=0.0056 and 0 vs 22 (16%), P=0.0002, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Planned postoperative critical care was associated with a lower rate of complications after elective colorectal surgery.

A survey of UK peri-operative medicine: pre-operative care.

The majority of UK hospitals now have a Local Lead for Peri-operative Medicine (n = 115). They were asked to take part in an online survey to identify provision and practice of pre-operative assessment and optimisation in the UK. We received 86 completed questionnaires (response rate 75%). Our results demonstrate strengths in provision of shared decision-making clinics. Fifty-seven (65%, 95%CI 55.8-75.4%) had clinics for high-risk surgical patients. However, 80 (93%, 70.2-87.2%) expressed a desire for support and training in shared decision-making. We asked about management of pre-operative anaemia, and identified that 69 (80%, 71.5-88.1%) had a screening process for anaemia, with 72% and 68% having access to oral and intravenous iron therapy, respectively. A need for peri-operative support in managing frailty and cognitive impairment was identified, as few (24%, 6.5-34.5%) respondents indicated that they had access to specific interventions. Respondents were asked to rank their 'top five' priority topics in Peri-operative Medicine from a list of 22. These were: shared decision-making; peri-operative team development; frailty screening and its management; postoperative morbidity prediction; and primary care collaboration. We found variation in practice across the UK, and propose to further explore this variation by examining barriers and facilitators to improvement, and highlighting examples of good practice.