Queen's Medical Centre trauma unit 'saved more lives'

A specialist regional trauma unit has saved more than 40 people in its first year, medics have said.

The East Midlands Major Trauma Centre at the Queen's Medical Centre in Nottingham was set up to take the most seriously injured patients.

Managers said the concentration of expertise and resources meant 44 extra patients had survived.

As well as emergency care, the centre provides therapy and rehabilitation services.

Major trauma patients are those who are most likely to die, such as people with serious gun and knife wounds or multiple injuries from car crashes.

Survival rates

Neil Grant, from Pinxton in Derbyshire, was treated at the Queens Medical Centre after a motorcycle accident left him with a punctured lung and internal bleeding.

He said: "Whoever made the decision to send me to [Queens Medical Centre] instead of a more local hospital probably saved my life.

"The doctors said, with the injuries I sustained, I was very lucky to be alive and I owe my life to the ambulance men and the [hospital] staff."

Consultant surgeon Adam Brooks said studying national statistics on injury survival gave them a clear idea of the centre's impact.

Regional roll-out

He said: "There are 44 people alive today because of the trauma system in the East Midlands who would not have been alive 12 months ago before we had the system.

"Twelve months ago we would not have had the therapists we have got involved now, we wouldn't have had the rehabilitation medics visiting the patients in critical care a day after their major injury - people looking at them and planning how they are going to get the patient back to a normal quality of life."

In its first year the centre took patients from across Nottinghamshire and the Chesterfield area.

It will begin accepting patients from Leicestershire by July and from the rest of Derbyshire and Lincolnshire by October.

When operating at full capacity in 2015 it is expected to treat around 900 people a year.