Anaesthesia services given seal of approval by Royal College

The quality of anaesthesia services at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals has been recognised with accreditation from the Royal College of Anaesthetists.

The Anaesthesia Clinical Services Accreditation (ACSA) is a mark of quality that recognises good practice across anaesthesia services.

Sheffield received praise for the service’s leadership and ethos, care pathway, equipment, facilities and staffing, patient experience and clinical governance.

Only eleven other hospitals in the country have full ACSA status, and Sheffield is the largest Trust to receive it.

Accreditation was awarded after a period of self-assessment and an ASCA review team visit to the Royal Hallamshire Hospital, Northern General Hospital and Jessop Wing maternity hospital.

Clinical care was found to be “exceptionally well organised and delivered,” with the review team confident patients receive very good service. The service’s “pro-active ethos” also impressed.

Consultant Anaesthetist Dr Guy Veall said: “This is a prestigious award that will provide our patients with the reassurance that they will receive top quality care during surgical operations conducted here at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals.  

“Whilst we are flattered by the comments made by the Royal College it is important to recognise the huge commitment and hard work undertaken by all members of our team in this success.

“The Accreditation scheme is a very new one but we felt that the service that we provide is of such high quality that we could demonstrate this against the high standards required by our national standard setting body.”

Under the scheme the Trust will also benefit from ongoing support and advice with service improvement work.

Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Sheffield Teaching Hospitals is one of the UK’s largest NHS Foundation Trusts and one of the largest and busiest teaching hospitals. We have over 15,000 staff caring for over a million patients each year at our five hospitals and in the local community:

• The Royal Hallamshire Hospital
• The Northern General Hospital
• Charles Clifford Dental Hospital
• Weston Park Cancer Hospital
• Jessop Wing Maternity Hospital

We offer a full range of local hospital and community health services for people in Sheffield as well as specialist hospital services to patients from further afield in our many specialist centres. The Trust is recognised internationally for its work in neurosciences, spinal injuries, renal, cancer, transplantation, neurosciences and orthopaedics.

The Trust has been awarded the title of ‘Hospital Trust of the Year’ in the Good Hospital Guide three times in five years and we are proud to be one of the top 20% of NHS Trusts for patient satisfaction.

The Trust is a recognised leader in medical research for bone, cardiac, neurosciences and long term conditions such as diabetes and lung disease. We also play a key role in the training and education of medical, nursing and dental students with our academic partners, including the University of Sheffield and Sheffield Hallam.