Heartbeat: New suite marks turning point for liver disease

September 2, 2019

Priory 5 ward at Sandwell Hospital have recently opened the Trust’s first ever Paracentesis Suite marking a turning point for liver disease patients.

Clinical and non-clinical colleagues, from our Executive Team to the ward HCAs, were in attendance at the opening at Sandwell Hospital.

Dr Saket Singhal, Consultant in Gastroenterology and Hepatology believes the opening of the suite will be beneficial for patients. He said: “Across the Trust, our liver team look after a huge number of patients with advanced liver disease.  One of the main consequences of advanced liver disease is the development of fluid (ascites) in the abdominal cavity which often requires removal by insertion of a drain, this is called paracentesis and is usually done as a day case intervention.”

“At City Hospital, patients can undergo day case paracentesis on the medical infusion suite (MIS), but no similar facility existed at Sandwell. Therefore, until now patients requiring paracentesis at Sandwell were frequently admitted as an emergency via ED and required admission into a ward bed for several days instead of having the paracentesis done as a day case.  This was not ideal for the patients and was an unnecessary use of valuable resources.”

In recent years, neighbouring Trusts have set up day case paracentesis facilities.  Clare Smith, liver CNS, visited some of these units and in conjunction with Dr Singhal, developed a business case for converting a disused side room on Priory 5 ward into a consultation room in which day case paracentesis could be safely performed.

Dr Carol Cobb, Consultant Gastroenterologist hosted the grand opening of the paracentesis suite and thanked everybody for their hard work in making it a reality.

She said: “I would like to say a massive thank you to Jo Thomas, Clare Smith, Nikole Hazeldine-Potts, Jacqui Moore, Saket Singhal and everyone else who made this happen!”

She added: “We’re expecting this facility will significantly improve the care for patients requiring day case paracentesis as well as preventing unnecessary ED admissions and saving bed days. With this in mind, we will ensure we closely monitor and audit the activity of the suite at regular intervals.”