Top award for Endoscopy Services at the Royal Oldham

One of largest endoscopy services in the country, which operates endoscopy units at The Royal Oldham Hospital, treating thousands of patients every year, has been given the best honour in its industry.

It has achieved the top accreditation by the Joint Advisory Group on Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (JAG).

Endoscopy is a flexible tube with a camera that allows examination of the inside of the body for diagnosis or treatment, using both fibre-optics and video technology for transmitting images to the operator.

The Endoscopy service performs over 30,000 endoscopy procedures each year.

Doctors and nursing staff perform a range of upper and lower Gastro Intestinal (GI) procedures including those to diagnose a range of conditions and to treat many conditions through the camera test.

Many complex operations can now be performed by passing surgical instruments down an endoscope.  

JAG is a national body that sets the quality standards and review the performance of Endoscopy units across the country. 

The JAG accreditation is awarded to the highest quality GI Endoscopy services that deliver a patient focused service of the highest standards.

Every endoscopy department in the country aspires to achieve the status of JAG accreditation.

To achieve JAG accreditation, a service needs to clearly demonstrate that they meet all the quality standards.

JAG assessment involves an independent review and assessment of factors including patient feedback, staffing, quality of care, patient comfort, training, unit design, quality of equipment, cleaning standards and the length of time patients wait between referral and a diagnosis.

Dr Sal Khalid, Clinical Lead Endoscopy at the Trust, said: “We are delighted to have received this prestigious award which confirms that our service meets the highest national standards for the quality of patient care and service delivery.

"This achievement is the result of extreme hard work and dedication of all the team in delivering a high quality, patient centred care to all our patients.

"Their passion and hard work has made this possible.

"I feel proud and privileged to be part of such a fabulous team across all of our hospital sites which is totally committed to providing an exceptional and caring service to their patients.

“Endoscopy is not the most comfortable test and most people would not look forward with excitement towards having a camera test.

"However, with this award and accreditation, our patients can have the confidence of knowing that if they require a camera test, they will receive the highest quality of care delivered by the most passionate and hardworking endoscopy staff across all of our hospitals.

“This award has provided a real boost to the morale of all the teams across endoscopy who are ready to work even harder to not only maintain these standards but to fulfil their ambition of developing our department as a centre of excellence in the country.

"Following the visit the team of assessors described our Endoscopy team as ‘A fabulous, hardworking, patient focussed team with a strong and effective leadership’.

“Given the size of the service, this formal accreditation is no small feat and is a huge achievement for all of those staff involved ensuring our patients get the very best service and care.”