Clinical leaders Dr Sanjeev Naidu and Joanne Summers delighted in the opportunity to shine the blue light on the scope of achievements for QEII’s Endoscopy Unit this month as they celebrated 10 years of operation.
The purpose-built facility opened its doors on 17 October 2013 offering up two state-of-the-art procedural suites and an outpatient clinic to the local community.
Staff Specialist, Dr Naidu who was among the first to propose the original build says that the facility exceeded expectations within the first few months of opening.
“[It was predicted] each of the suites would do about 2500 cases per year, so we would have expected about 5000 from this unit - but we hit 7000 to 9000 cases from the start.”
“We had teams coming to us within six weeks of operation from Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, and New Zealand to show them around the unit. There were only four other facilities like this in the world and we became the flagship site for Southeast Asia.”
“We have become one of the best services in Australia from a quality and safety point of view and in terms of the quantity of people that we see.”
In the 2,284 days since the unit was operational, the unit has performed more than 76,000 procedures and over 116,000 outpatient services.
Not without trials, the unit has had to change and adapt to service demands over the years, temporarily halting endoscopy procedures twice. But for each set back, the team steps up and meets the challenge of delivering phenomenal patient care says Dr Naidu.
Nurse Unit Manager, Joanne Summers says that the success of the unit is a testament to the power of teamwork in making the dream work.
"All of the streams are invested in what we’re doing here from admin to clinical staff and operational services. In pursuit of these outcomes, you could be let down if even one of the streams was not fully invested.
“We’re very fortunate here that we do have such good relationships between teams and departments to be able to do what we do and do it well.”
“We had a dream and vision, but it was very dependent on getting the right people. That’s our biggest strength, our team and the individuals that make it.”
Joanne and Dr Naidu would like to thank the people that have helped shaped the team from the start and those that continue to shape the team today.
Congratulations to the QEII Endoscopy Unit for leading by example and the continued commitment to outstanding patient care.