Staff in the £7m Endoscopy Unit at Harrogate District Hospital are “delighted” after being reaccredited by a national advisory group, with the Unit’s first-class facilities and “spotlessly clean environment” being highlighted.

The Unit, which opened its doors to patients in June 2018, has been reaccredited by the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) Joint Advisory Group (JAG) on gastrointestinal (GI) Endoscopy. The JAG supports endoscopy services across the UK to focus on standards and identify areas for development, with Harrogate District Hospital’s Unit being reaccredited following a comprehensive inspection process in February 2019.

The team assessing the Endoscopy Unit highlighted the Unit’s approach to patient safety, its highly trained staff as well its first-class facilities and its “spotlessly clean environment.” The report also highlighted the Unit’s positive approach to bookings and waiting times for appointments.

The £7m Endoscopy Unit provides a much improved environment for patients and staff at Harrogate District Hospital, part of Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust. It includes a total of five procedure rooms, separate changing facilities and dedicated admissions and discharge rooms where the clinical teams can discuss the procedure with patients in private.

JAG accreditation is the formal recognition that an endoscopy service has demonstrated that it has the competence to deliver against the criteria set out in the JAG standards. To achieve accreditation, an endoscopy service must provide clear evidence that they have met all of the JAG standards.

As part of February’s inspection, the JAG assessment team highlighted several areas of excellence in the service, with emphasis on the following key points:

· The unit should be congratulated on the excellent leadership structure and particularly the joint working between the surgical and medical leads which is an exemplar practice

· The team should be congratulated on an extensive set of policies and procedures that demonstrated patient safety at the centre of them. It was clear that these were well adopted by all staff groups

· The Trust should be congratulated on the new endoscopy facility which has recently been opened. The standard of accommodation is excellent, ensuring the patient’s needs are at the forefront of the design whilst incorporating very good staff facilities

· In addition the endoscopy team have developed excellent systems and processes since moving into the new environment which is much more expansive than their previous footprint

· The team should be congratulated on how well they have developed their systems and processes since moving into the new environment which is much more expansive than their previous footprint

· The visiting team wanted to congratulate the staff within endoscopy for maintaining a spotlessly clean environment and this rigorous cleaning routine was visible throughout our unit tour

· The booking team should be congratulated on maintaining their waiting times and in developing such robust booking and scheduling models and their effective utilisation of the endoscopy scheduling system. Their plan to expand full booking will further enhance their service

· The unit should be congratulated on the patient feedback it receives along with the notice boards it has produced in the waiting area demonstrating this. We felt this could give reassurance to patients and would also reduce anxiety pre-procedure

Lesley Danby, Matron (Surgery) for Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We are delighted to have received JAG reaccreditation for our Endoscopy Unit. A number of things have led to this fantastic achievement, not least the hard work of the brilliant staff as well as the opening of our brand-new £7m Unit in June 2018.”

Mr Jon Harrison, Colorectal Surgeon and Joint Clinical Lead for Endoscopy at the Trust, worked as part of the team co-ordinating the assessment. He said: “We are incredibly proud of our new Endoscopy Unit and it is a great credit to our team that the care that we provide to our patients was thought to be “exemplary” by the visiting JAG team. This is an excellent achievement.”

The Endoscopy Unit is JAG accredited until March 2020, where providing it meets standards, will be accredited once again.