RSS 1.0Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust
Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust provides local general hospital and community services to around 260,000 people in Walsall and the surrounding areas. We provide high quality, friendly and effective community health services from some 60 sites including health centres and GP surgeries. Covering Walsall and beyond, our multidisciplinary services include rapid response in the community and home-based care, so that those with long-term conditions and the frail elderly, can remain in their own homes to be cared for. Walsall Manor Hospital is an acute general hospital that has 550 acute beds and provides a wide range of services, including a 24-hour Urgent and Emergency Care Centre. Our Vision is, “To deliver exceptional care together to improve the health and wellbeing of our communities”. This community represents the research outputs of the entire Trust. The research is arranged under the existing organisational structure of the Trust.
Sub-communities within this community
Recent Submissions
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7-day AKI nursing team leads to transformation of inpatient renal care - service developmentNo abstract available.
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53300 Ascertaining current beliefs surrounding sunscreen : a national survey in the UKNo abstract available
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Polyurethane versus calcium alginate dressings for split-thickness skin graft donor site : a systematic review and meta-analysisHerein, we compare the outcomes of polyurethane and calcium alginate dressings for split-thickness skin graft (STSG) donor sites. A systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted with a search of electronic databases to identify all randomised controlled trials (RCTs) and observational studies comparing the outcomes of polyurethane dressing versus calcium alginate for STSG donor sites. Primary outcomes were pain intensity, convenience for staff and patients, and adverse effects (namely, excessive exudate, infection rate, and hematoma). Secondary outcome measures included the assessment of healing, dressing changes, cosmetic appearance, and cost. Fixed and random-effect models were used for the analysis. Four RCTs enrolling 127 subjects were identified. There was no significant difference between polyurethane and calcium alginate in terms of pain intensity on Day 1 (mean difference (MD) 0.13, P = 0.80) and Day 5 (MD = 0.20, P = 0.38), as well as the ease of application (odds ratio (OR) = 3.08, P = 0.47). However, there was a statistically significant improvement in patient comfort, favouring the polyurethane group (OR = 44.11, P < 0.00001). In addition, no statistically significant differences were noted in terms of adverse effects between the two dressings. In terms of cost, the calcium gluconate dressing had an overall higher cost compared to polyurethane. Polyurethane is a more favourable dressing compared to calcium alginate for STSG donor sites in terms of patient comfort, healing, and cosmetic outcomes. However, comparable results were noted in terms of pain intensity, ease of application, and adverse effects profile. Cost-effectiveness analysis studies are required to justify its routine use.
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The role of Neutrophil-Lymphocyte-Ratio (NLR) and Platelet-Lymphocyte-Ratio (PLR) as a biomarker for distinguishing between complicated and uncomplicated appendicitisIntroduction Acute appendicitis (AA) is one of the most common acute general surgical presentations affecting 7% of the population at some point in their lifetime. The ability to assess the risk of complicated appendicitis (CA) from uncomplicated appendicitis (UA) in acute appendicitis (AA) could reduce the associated morbidity and mortality. The value of platelet lymphocyte ratio (PLR) as an inflammatory marker increases when its fluctuations are interpreted along with other complementary hematologic indices, such as neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), which provides additional information about the disease activity. Hence, we postulated that NLR and/or PLR could serve as a potential surrogate marker in assessing the severity of AA. Aim This study aims to investigate the use of PLR and/or NLR as a surrogate biomarker in differentiating uncomplicated from complicated appendicitis. Material and methods This retrospective study was conducted at Russells Hall Hospital from January 1, 2017, to December 31, 2020. Data of all patients over age 16 years that had histologically confirmed appendicitis were retrieved. NLR and PLR were calculated from the admission hemogram, and the ratios were compared between uncomplicated (UA) or complicated appendicitis (CA). Cut-off values were calculated using the summarized ROC curve; in addition, the sensitivity and specificity with 95% confidence intervals were determined using SPSS 25.0 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY). Results A total of 799 patients were analyzed, of which 469 (58.7%) were female. The median age was 31.2 years. The difference between NLR and PLR within the two appendicitis groups was significant (P=0.05; Kruskal-Wallis). Cohen's kappa (degree of inter-rater agreement) between NLR and PLR showed a moderate agreement of 0.589 (P<0.001). We equally demonstrated an exponential relationship between PLR and NLR (R2 =0.510, P<0.05). For UA, the area under the curve (AUC) and the cut-off for NLR and PLR were 0.715, 4.75 with a confidence interval (CI) of 0.678-0.653 and 0.632, 155 with a CI of 0.591-0.672, respectively. For CA, using NLR and PLR, the AUC and cut-off were 0.727, 6.96 with a CI of 0.687-0.768 and 0.653, 180.5 with a CI of 0.602-0.703, respectively; all were significant with a P of <0.001. Conclusion NLR and PLR are a reliable, less cumbersome surrogate biomarker for assessing the severity of acute appendicitis.
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Prescribing error incident audit - looking beyond the root causeNo abstract available.
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Preoperative assessment GIRFT alignmentNo abstract available.
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Information Centre, Walsall Palliative Care Centre. Service improvement and redesignNo abstract available.
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Impact of an emergency care embedded pharmacistNo abstract available.
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Improving flow in spinal outpatientsNo abstract available.
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Colorectal surgery improvement projectNo abstract available.
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Learning from setbacks - theatre traysNo abstract available.
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Personal Child Health Record (red book) insertNo abstract available.
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Simulation at Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust - the Dinwoodie projectNo abstract available.
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Introduction of Trans-nasal endoscopyNo abstract available.
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Introduction of Teledermatology triage for skin cancer referralsNo abstract available.
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Reducing time of referral to scan for CT lung biopsiesNo abstract available.
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Group therapy and support for stroke patients with communication difficultiesNo abstract available.
