Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation has been awarded exemplar status by the British Society of Interventional Radiology in recognition of its interventional radiology services.
Interventional radiologists are specialists who use image-guided techniques to treat clinical conditions using a tiny pinhole in the skin.
Using a fusion of sophisticated scans and imaging, these highly skilled clinicians are able to navigate fine catheter tubes and wires around the body to treat a wide range of medical conditions, often avoiding the need for invasive surgery and a general anaesthetic.
Interventional radiology can be used to treat a wide range of vascular and non-vascular conditions, many of which can be life-threatening.
This includes patients being treated for traumatic injuries such as those suffering with internal bleeding, people with localised infections (sepsis), bleeding during and after labour, those with early cancers, people who have a blockage in their arteries and stroke victims who have clots in their brain
Teams receiving the award are chosen after a rigorous independent external assessment process where they have to demonstrate a commitment to improving quality and access to interventional radiology services in four key areas: scope of services and availability, providing good quality care, patients focus and service improvement.
Dr Trevor Cleveland, consultant vascular radiologist at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We are delighted to have achieved this prestigious status, which is great national recognition of the service the whole team provide.
"In Sheffield we have two teams, vascular and non-vascular, which work with other clinicians across the Trust to ensure that where clinically appropriate, patients are offered the option of interventional radiology 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.”
