Provision of Services Document
AUGIS has produced an up-to-date Provision of Services document which can be used to inform clinicians and commissioners regarding upper GI surgical services across Great Britain and Ireland. The document describes upper GI surgical disease and includes hepato-pancreato-biliary surgery.
The document is cognisant of the differences in healthcare delivery across the five healthcare systems (England, Scotland, Wales, N. Ireland and Ireland) and also reflects the necessary differences in provision imposed by local geographic variations (major conurbations supported by university hospitals versus remote regions with low populations density regions).
The document also reflects the increasing sub-specialisation of general surgical service. It is not the intention of AUGIS to encourage a further re-organisation of upper GI surgical services. Commissioners, however, now expect patients to be managed by an experienced team of consultants available 24 hours a day, seven days a week to deal with out-of-hours emergencies including the specialist cover of patients who have had OG and HPB resections.
The Provision of Services document provides a framework for the care of patients with upper GI surgical disease which will consolidate current practice and allow changes to be made to improve services across the UK and Ireland.
The Provision of Services document can be viewed here: http://www.augis.org/news_guidelines/augis_reports.htm
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