Vascular surgery: GIRFT Programme National Specialty Report (March 2018)

Summary

Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) is designed to improve the quality of care within the NHS by reducing unwarranted variations. By tackling variations in the way services are delivered across the NHS, and by sharing best practice between trusts, GIRFT identifies changes that will help improve care and patient outcomes, as well as delivering efficiencies such as the reduction of unnecessary procedures and cost savings.

Content

This GIRFT report for vascular surgery recommends the adoption of a fully-fledged vascular networks model across the NHS in England, to give patients faster access to urgent surgery and save lives. According to the report, the model would help reduce the likelihood of life-threatening strokes, TIAs (transient ischaemic attacks), aortic aneurysm ruptures and arterial blockages.

The report makes 17 recommendations, including:

• developing formal 'hub' and 'spoke' networks.
• reducing the time to treatment for vital surgical interventions.
• improving perioperative and follow-up care.

Short video summary of the report