A Liverpool hospital is the first in the North West to set up an elite team of doctors and nurses that swings into action to save patient lives anywhere in the hospital at any time day or night.
The system used at University Hospital Aintree is based on one introduced at the Liverpool Hospital, Sydney, Australia. It has been successfully rolled out across Australasia and the United States, and other UK hospitals are now expected to follow Aintree’s example.
A handful of other UK hospitals have set up rapid response teams often led by nurses, but none featuring such a range of expertise, including a critical care doctor and a surgeon.
After being scrambled almost 150 times since its launch two months ago, the team is already acknowledged as helping save the lives of several patients whose condition had unexpectedly and critically deteriorated.
The Medical Emergency Team (MET) is a key part of the Trust’s Quality Strategy to save 300 extra lives at University Hospital Aintree over the next three years.
Unlike a ‘crash team’ which is tasked with resuscitation, the MET steps in to help prevent cardiac arrest, greatly increasing a patient’s chances of recovery.
A patient in a busy acute hospital can wait for senior medical staff to become available in such circumstances. At University Hospital Aintree, the MET is on the scene within five minutes of being bleeped, no matter where in the hospital the patient is.
The Aintree team, made up of doctors from Critical Care, Medicine and Surgery together with a Specialist Nurse and Theatre Practitioner, can be summoned 24 hours a day, seven days a week to acutely ill patients requiring urgent medical attention.
Several hospitals from across the country have approached the team to see how they can learn from Aintree’s experience.
MET co-ordinator June Carr said: “There is no doubt in my mind that the team is already saving lives. We are getting to patients so quickly, and the medical attention from the highly-skilled team significantly increases the patient’s chance of survival.
“The MET bring with them a Rapid Response Trolley which contains emergency equipment and drugs which may be unavailable outside of the Critical Care Unit.
“The MET will assess the patient and prescribe a plan of management for the patient’s ward doctors and nurses to follow. If necessary they will stabilise the patient and safely transfer them to the Critical Care Unit.”
When James Baddeley, 69, from Maghull, went to University Hospital Aintree for his regular kidney dialysis treatment, the last thing he expected was to need the services of the Medical Emergency Team.
He said: “I was lying in bed having treatment on the Fresenius Dialysis Unit when suddenly I started feeling really sick and having chest pains. Before I knew it, I had blacked out.”
Staff on the ward alerted the MET, and within seconds they were on the scene.
Concerned at James’ breathing, the team started him on oxygen, put him on a heart monitor, and gave him heart medicine before taking him to A&E. After initial investigations, he was admitted to the Heart Assessment Centre.
Mr Baddeley, who made a full recovery from the chest pains, said: “I came round to see lots of people all around me, looking after me.
"Everyone in the team was absolutely fantastic, and I am so grateful to them. They really helped to calm me down and I am so fortunate I was in a place which actually had a team. As far as I am concerned, every hospital should have one."
* CASE STUDY – JAMES BADDELEY, MAGHULL
When James Baddeley, 69, from Maghull, went to University Hospital Aintree for his regular kidney dialysis treatment, the last thing he expected was to need the services of the Medical Emergency Team.
He said: “I was lying in bed having treatment on the Fresenius Dialysis Unit when suddenly I started feeling really sick and having chest pains. Before I knew it, I had blacked out.”
Staff on the ward alerted the MET, and within seconds they were on the scene.
Concerned at James’ breathing, the team started him on oxygen, put him on a heart monitor, and gave him heart medicine before taking him to A&E. After initial investigations, he was admitted to the Heart Assessment Centre.
Mr Baddeley, who made a full recovery from the chest pains, said: “I came round to see lots of people all around me, looking after me. Everyone in the team was absolutely fantastic, and I am so grateful to them.
They really helped to calm me down and I am so fortunate I was in a place which actually had a team. As far as I am concerned, every hospital should have one.”
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