Endoscopy services receive accreditation from Joint Advisory Group (JAG)

The gastroenterology team at Spire Cambridge Lea Hospital is celebrating being the first independent hospital in Cambridge to be awarded national and independent accreditation for their extensive endoscopy services. Accreditation from The Joint Advisory Group (JAG) on Gastrointestinal Endoscopy ensures patients can feel assured and confident they will receive excellent and consistent care while undergoing an examination.

JAG measures endoscopy services against national benchmarks to reduce variation, and to drive up standards of care for patients. The assessors scrutinise four areas of the service including:

• Clinical quality
• Patient experience
• Workforce
• Training

Endoscopy is used for diagnosing and treating conditions affecting the stomach, intestines, oesophagus and rectum – including the early signs of bowel cancer. It is a vital diagnostic tool and is used extensively. Following £10m of investment in 2018, Spire Cambridge Lea Hospital opened a new, 19-bay day care centre with a brand new endoscopy suite. Today an extensive team of consultant specialists use the centre supported by nurses, healthcare assistants and a decontamination team. An increasing number of patients seek treatment at the centre each day with many travelling long distances.

 Consultant Gastroenterologist Dr Ewen Cameron is the clinical lead for endoscopy services at Spire Cambridge Lea Hospital. He explained:

“This is a fantastic achievement and the team can take pride in being able to show we offer a recognised, high quality and safe service. The accreditation underlines our dedication to driving up quality standards of best practice. We know an endoscopy examination or treatment can be a stressful experience for our patients so we have put in place everything we can to reduce any anxiety. JAG is also about confirming that we give our patients privacy, support and above all dignity during what can be a difficult appointment.

“The pandemic delayed our assessment, but now it is more important than ever because we are busy. We are seeing a wider age range of patients compared to pre-pandemic clinics. Some are young and though they may have what are considered less urgent conditions, they have waited with worrying symptoms and are keen to be seen by a specialist who can screen, check and diagnose.”

Neil McCullough, Hospital Director of Spire Cambridge Lea Hospital continued:

“For the hospital, the accreditation demonstrates we offer the gold standard in diagnostics and we can now help other healthcare providers and partners should they require support. This is the third important industry award the hospital and team have received from an independent assessor this year. In January we were named a National Joint Registry (NJR) Quality Data Provider and in March the British Society of Gynaecological Endoscopy (BSGE) recognised our specialist gynaecology team and hospital as a centre of excellence for the treatment of endometriosis. I am extremely proud of the recognition and standards of care my incredible team is delivering, especially after what has been two tough years for our sector.”