Private hospital carrying out NHS operations while Guy’s and St Thomas’ fight coronavirus
A private hospital is taking the load off the NHS by carrying out operations on cancer and heart patients.
London Bridge Hospital has joined forces with King’s College Hospital and Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital to treat high-risk NHS patients who require complex surgery.
King’s has already treated more than 1,000 coronavirus patients, so it is safer for other people to be treated at a separate site.
Consultant JP Jeannon, of Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital, said: “The private sector and the NHS would normally run in parallel. Now, in this situation we’re working together and collaborating.”
London Bridge Hospital has a cancer centre, four floors including private inpatient beds, theatres and intensive care units. It is taking a string of measures so that operations can go ahead safely.
Temperature checks on all staff and patients, appropriate PPE equipment, and all patients scheduled for surgery are swabbed for the virus before their procedure – their operation going ahead if they are found not to have coronavirus.
One patient who was transferred to have his operation at London Bridge Hospital was Paul Bowen, who underwent surgery for thyroid cancer and is now recovering.
He was able to have his own room in London Bridge Hospital cancer centre. He said: “After having major surgery, it’s nice to have a little rest and not have to talk with anybody that might be in a bed next to me if I’m not in the mood for talking.”
Former milkman Ted, 83, from Kent, needed a heart valve replaced and a pacemaker fitted in a hospital where there are no coronavirus patients.
A team from King’s performed the urgent life-saving surgery at London Bridge Hospital. Ted said: “It was a great relief when they rung up and said do you want it done?”
Dr Majid Kazmi is a consultant haematologist at London Bridge Hospital and chief of cancer services and deputy medical director Guy’s and St Thomas’
He said: “It’s working brilliantly. We’ve always had a good relationship with GSST. In the last month this has been transformed to a whole new level.
“This unprecedented move allows us to deliver almost 80 per cent of what we would usually be doing, despite the Covid-19 situation. A huge amount of logistical work is going on behind the scenes, but from a patient perspective we’ve made it as seamless as possible.”
London Bridge Hospital chief executive Janene Madden said: “We have 10 operating theatres here and around 200 beds, NHS trusts locally are using us to maximum capacity at the moment, so they are filling every one of our theatres, during the week, with time-critical surgery.”