St Hugh’s Hospital in Grimsby has received a prestigious award for its high standards of patient safety and for the way it collects information about joint replacement surgery.

The hospital has been awarded the National Joint Registry (NJR) Quality Data Provider award for the rigorous way in which it gathers and submits information to support a national safety system for joint replacements.

The National Joint Registry collects data from all NHS and private providers in the country which perform hip, knee, ankle, elbow and shoulder joint replacement operations to encourage them to achieve the highest possible standards of accuracy when performing surgery.

Their aim is to improve joint replacement surgery for the benefit of patients, clinicians and the industry.

Ricardo Pacheco, Clinical Lead for Orthopaedics at St Hugh’s Hospital, said: “It has been an excellent team effort and a great result. Every member of the orthopaedic team has worked extremely hard on collecting, auditing and entering the data.

“We have adopted new ways of working and have been very productive during these challenging times. We will continue the hard work to maintain this high standard of auditing to ensure patient safety and care, and to help clinicians and patients to make informed decisions about their orthopaedic treatment.”

The NJR Quality Data Provider certificate scheme was introduced to offer hospitals a blueprint for reaching high-quality standards relating to patient safety and to reward those who have met registry targets in this area.

To achieve the award, hospitals are required to meet six ambitious targets during the audit period 2019/20, including compliance with the NJR’s mandatory national audit.

Emma Parker, Patient Pathway Co-ordinator at St Hugh’s Hospital, said: “The NJR Data Quality Audit investigates the accurate number of joint replacement procedures submitted to the registry compared to the number carried out and recorded in the local hospital patient administration system.

“The audit ensures that the NJR is collecting and reporting upon the most complete, accurate data possible across all hospitals performing joint replacement operations, including St Hugh’s Hospital.”

Ashley Brown, Hospital Director at St Hugh’s, said: “This is a unique award which demonstrates the high standards being met by the staff at St Hugh’s Hospital. We know that meeting these NJR targets requires a strong departmental effort and this award demonstrates just how hard our staff have been working to achieve compliance with the registry during 2019 to 2020.

“Perhaps more importantly, the quality data marries up with the excellent patient feedback we have continued to receive at our COVID-secure site during the pandemic. The award increases the awareness of the importance in quality data collection and helps embed the ethos that better data ultimately equals better care.”

Tim Wilton, Medical Director at the National Joint Registry, said: “Congratulations to colleagues at St Hugh’s Hospital. The Quality Data Provider Award demonstrates the high standards being met towards ensuring compliance with the NJR and is often a reflection of strong departmental efforts to achieve such status.

“Registry data now provides an important source of evidence for regulators, such as the Care Quality Commission, to inform their judgements about services, as well as being a fundamental driver to inform improved quality of care for patients.”

For further information about the NJR’s Quality Data Provider certificate scheme, visit the website.

To find out more about St Hugh’s Hospital, visit: www.hmtsthughs.org