Bradford Hospitals’ cancer surgery success

Bradford’s hospitals have one of the best survival rates for patients undergoing curative surgery for stomach and oesophageal (gullet) cancer, a NHS audit has revealed.

The Third Annual Report of the National Oesophago-Gastric Cancer Audit 2010, which also reports on the survival rates of those patients, found that none of Bradford Teaching Hospital’s patients died following their operations.

It also highlighted that leak rates following surgery – which are crucial measures of morbidity - were among the best in the country at 1.7 per cent.

Surgeon James C Halstead said: “The report is an excellent indicator of how our surgical team is performing nationally and regionally and we are delighted that our mortality and morbidity rates are equal lowest.

“When you look at the audit’s mortality rates across England and Wales, we are performing better than anyone else who carries out a similar number of operations to ours.

“This audit shows that when we have to do these operations, we are doing them well and clinically we are providing the highest quality of care for the city’s patients.”

The audit details information on the process of care and patient outcomes between October 1, 2007 and June 30, 2009. During this 18-month period surgeons at Bradford Royal Infirmary operated on 61 patients.

Despite the surgical success which the audit’s findings revealed, Mr Halstead said the team would continue to strive to improve their skills even further.

“We have worked hard to become one of the best performing Trusts in the country for stomach and oesophageal cancer surgery but we will not become complacent,” he added.

“We are now using the latest techniques including keyhole surgery for these two forms of cancer surgery and our team of three surgeons will continue to be highly specialised in dealing with these very challenging procedures.”

The Trust, which became a cancer centre in 2004, has three Upper Gastrointestinal  surgeons, John May, Jay Gokhale and James C Halstead, who perform these specialist operations.

Since the audit was carried out there have been on-going improvements within the team including increased use of keyhole surgery, better images being provided to surgeons detailing the cancer site and better assessment of patient fitness to withstand major surgery.

The surgeons are expecting this type of curative surgery to become more common in the city.

“The incidence of oesophageal cancer is increasing and it is one of the fastest growing types of cancer in the western world,” explained Mr Gokhale. “It can sometimes be related to obesity and reflux and patients need to be aware that the most common symptom is food sticking, difficulty swallowing or persistent indigestion.

“With the increased westernisation of the Asian population in Bradford we are expecting to see a rise in these types of cancer in the coming years and, with it, the requirement for these types of operations.”

Symptoms of stomach cancer can include indigestion, nausea and vomiting and weight-loss.

The audit, which was published by NHS Information Services, was prepared by The Royal College of Surgeons for England, The Association of Upper GI Surgeons, The British Society of Gastroenterology and the National Clinical Audit Support Programme.

All but two of the 154 acute trusts across England and all of the 13 Welsh acute trusts took part in the report study while seven cancer centres failed to comply fully with the audit.