Internationally-renowned trauma lead Professor Sir Keith Porter has helped Salford Royal celebrate an exciting new era in major trauma services for Greater Manchester.
Construction work will soon begin on a six-storey state-of-the-art Acute Receiving Centre (ARC) at Salford Royal. This centre will be home to Salford Royal’s trauma centre, which treats patients from across Greater Manchester who have experienced life changing or life threatening injuries, for example, after a serious road traffic accident or serious fall.
The new building will introduce 72 new in-patient beds, five new theatres and other new facilities, for example, treatment rooms and X-ray areas. Crucially, the building will have a helipad to help ensure patients receive even faster access to highly specialised, life-saving treatment.
Salford Royal has been the lead provider for major trauma services since 2015 and every year treats around 1250 trauma patients, supporting these patients from their emergency care through to any ongoing, follow-up care, for example, rehabilitation.
Professor Sir Keith, who was instrumental in the establishment of trauma networks in England, was given a tour of Salford Royal’s Emergency Department and was able to understand more about the exciting plans for the trauma service’s future.
He also addressed staff at a celebration event with other speakers Professor Fiona Lecky, Research Director of the Trauma Audit Research Network and Professor Paul Dark, Professor of Critical Care Medicine, Salford Royal, who presented the long history and exciting future for academic trauma research in Salford.
Professor Sir Keith said: “Here in Salford, they are already recognised as a strong performing major trauma centre. I am delighted that this development will provide a major advancement to enable a world class service and improve outcomes for their patients.
“It’s been clear throughout my visit that everything is focussed on the patients – they are absolutely at the front and centre of everything and I know that the service that Salford Royal is offering for patients across Greater Manchester will go from strength to strength.”
Dr Chris Brookes, Deputy Chief Executive and Chief Medical Director of the Northern Care Alliance NHS Group, which brings together Salford Royal and Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “It’s an incredibly exciting time for us and it was an honour to welcome Professor Sir Keith Porter so that he can understand more about the service we offer to Greater Manchester patients and our aspirations for the future.
“The ARC is crucial to our plans; the new facilities give us the platform to build on our already impressive trauma outcomes and help more and more patients to both survive and then recover from their injuries.”
Professor Dark praised the highly skilled Acute Research Delivery Team and thanked patients for their ‘huge generosity’ in taking part in research, describing it as a gift to future patients.
- Professor Sir Keith Porter is a senior trauma surgeon at the Royal Centre for Defence Medicine in Birmingham. He is also responsible for co-ordinating the care of British troops injured in Afghanistan and is the UK’s only Professor of Clinical Traumatology. He has been developing treatment for injured servicemen and women for more than a decade. Professor Sir Keith trained at St Thomas’ Hospital in London before being jointly appointed at the Birmingham Accident Hospital and Selly Oak Hospital in 1986. He has a number of other roles, including being medical adviser to the County Air Ambulance and medical director of the West Midlands Central Accident Resuscitation (Care) team.