CUH is the new Major Trauma Centre for East of England

Cambridge University Hospitals will be the region’s new Major Trauma Centre, providing world-class emergency care to the most severely-injured patients from across the East of England.

 

Up to 800 people a year in this region receive major traumatic injuries – in a car crash, for example. Major trauma is the leading cause of death for people under the age of 40 in the UK.

 

Currently, major trauma patients are taken to local emergency departments – but because such injuries are rare, hospitals often see no more than one patient a week. That means that the skills and knowledge they need to treat the most serious injuries are not as well-developed as other types of emergency medicine.

 

Dr Robert Winter, chair of the East of England Major Trauma Network, said:

“Providing expert trauma care in every emergency department is incredibly difficult. In the East of England, major trauma cases account for only around 1% of all the work emergency departments do.

 

“There is a wealth of international research showing that more patients will get better outcomes if dedicated centres, with a wide range of specialties on one site, are available.

 

“As most hospital emergency departments in the region only ever see a handful of cases each year, it is simply not possible to have all the necessary skills available all the time, just in case.”

 

These concerns prompted a series of national reviews, leading to a requirement that every NHS region in England should have a major trauma network and a dedicated Major Trauma Centre – known as an MTC – in place by the end of this financial year.

 

A key requirement of the national standards is that every MTC must be located in a hospital that also has a neurosurgery department. Addenbrooke’s is the only hospital in the region that provides this service.

 

Dr Gareth Goodier, chief executive of Cambridge University Hospitals said:

“The decision to establish Addenbrooke’s Hospital as the region’s Major Trauma Centre means that we can make sure that the most complex trauma patients get the best possible specialist treatment.

 

“The evidence shows that trauma patients are more likely to do well if they are looked after by a highly trained and specialised team. We already have those experts in major trauma – and we will be working in close partnership with the region’s hospitals to look after the serious cases which will be transferred to Cambridge.

 

“Our Emergency Department will, of course, continue to provide the usual A&E service to every patient who needs it.”

 

The new MTC will be a new service to support the existing work of the emergency departments and as such there will be no changes to current accident and emergency provision at any of the region’s acute hospitals.

 

In addition, the MTC will link with local acute hospitals to share learning and expertise. The aim is to improve each hospital’s ability to stabilise patients before they are transferred to the MTC, and to make it possible for patients to move back to a local hospital after initial treatment and receive the rest of their care closer to home.

 

 

 

 

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