Cath Lab Basics 2015 AHP meeting: summary

Written by

Cath Lab Basics 2015 AHP meeting: summary

27th June 2015

BCIS Cath Lab Basics March 2015

One of the many functions of the BCIS AHP Working Group is to help with the education of other AHPs who may be involved in coronary intervention. The first catheter lab basics meeting that we organised was held in March 2013 in London, at the Royal Free Hospital. The following year it was hosted by Manchester Royal Infirmary. The third course was held in March 2015 at the Golden Jubilee Hospital in Glasgow. As usual, I arranged to attend the meeting to present on radiation protection and identifying coronary arteries. I also helped with the arrangements for the two-day course. To get from Manchester to Glasgow takes about 4 hours by car, 3 hours by train or 50 minutes by aeroplane. Naturally, I chose the “quick” option. So I met Dr Fraser in the departure lounge at Manchester Airport at about 7.30pm for our 8.15pm flight. “On time”, said the screens. Soon it was postponed to 8.45, then 9.00, then 9.40 and finally 10.15. The departure lounge was deserted, apart from the unfortunates booked on our flight. We had been given a voucher for a meal on the way to the gate, but all the outlets had closed for the evening. When we got to the gate, the aircraft was half the size of the one that had been booked. There was nowhere for my case. It was rather cramped, but otherwise satisfactory until 10 minutes before landing we were told that we would not be landing at Glasgow, but at Edinburgh. “Don’t worry though, there will be taxis to take you onto Glasgow” came the tannoy. So the unfortunate 36 of us (on the plane) trampled out to the waiting people carriers and were loaded onto vehicles. An hour or so later we were in the city centre and some passengers were dumped and others, ourselves included, loaded onto another taxi for the onward journey to our hotel. God knows how long that took, but we finally reached the reception at 1.40am and our rooms at 2.00 am. How we ran the meeting, I don’t know, but the meeting was once again a resounding success. The moral of this story is that I shall never try the quickest route to Glasgow again.

Bryan Walker Clinical Lead Radiographer – Manchester Heart Centre Radiographer representative, BCIS AHP Working Group June 2015

AHP 4th Meeting 2014: Report

Written by

AHP 4th Meeting 2014: Report

9th June 2014

AHP 4th Meeting 2014: Report

Following much discussion regarding the strengths and weaknesses of the second 2 day March AHPs’ meeting in Manchester, we all suggested ways in which it could be improved for Glasgow in 2015. It was agreed to change the running order and to include some recorded live cases to illustrate practice to less experienced colleagues.

There was also discussion of the AHPs’ section of the annual ACI meeting in London during January 2015. The group made many suggestions as to how this meeting too could be improved for AHPs.

The final item of note was a discussion of a plan to have open days at various catheter laboratories throughout the UK. Each would be open for one visit each year to around 4-5 visitors.

Bryan Walker

Radiographer Representative

BCIS Working Group

Clinical Lead Radiographer Manchester Royal Infirmary, Catheter Labs

AHP 3rd Meeting 2013: Report

Written by

AHP 3rd Meeting 2013: Report

9th January 2014

Report: Allied Health Professionals Working Group – 3rd meeting, 11 November 2013

It was the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. With appropriate solemnity, the BCIS AHP Working Group met for the 3rd time in the Heart Centre of Manchester Royal Infirmary.

Unusually, there was a full-house and only I was late (having travelled about 100 yards).

There was a full programme of business to attend to.

Dr Fraser started the meeting off by thanking everyone for their efforts in attending and welcoming two new faces. Alison Brown, Clinical Educator, Golden Jubilee National Hospital in Glasgow had been officially appointed to the committee and she was accompanied by her colleague Murray Jummun who would be helping her to organise the proposed 2015 AHPs’ meeting in Glasgow.

The first agenda item was to organise the AHPs’ sessions for ACI in 2014. Discussion around this topic was lengthy and terminated only by our first tea and biscuits break.

With this settled (check out the details on the ACI 2014 website), we turned our attention to the organisation of our up-coming catheter lab basics course in March 2014. It was agreed that we should keep the general format the same (as what is basic does not change) and fine-tune areas that the committee felt needed to be altered.

Sarah Carson proposed that colleagues at Bristol would be interested in hosting the 2016 course.

Having partaken of a more than adequate finger-buffet, we addressed the AHPs’ element of the BCIS website. It was agreed that this was growing satisfactorily, but more educational materials were to be encouraged. Chris Loder offered a piece that would assist anyone wishing to write an abstract for a publication. It was agreed that this would be a welcome addition.

Once again, Dr Fraser asked all the group members to find and provide a photograph for the website front page. Cue the squirming from the usual quarters. It was proposed that the website should also have a feedback box, which would email directly to bcis@bcis.com. It was also decided to ask former committee members for any standard operating protocols that could be added to the site. Finally, a research page was proposed and I agreed to help put this in place.

The next agenda item was the election of new members. The committee had no physiologist member and this had to be addressed along with two more nursing representatives who had yet to be replaced.

The final item discussed was communication with other groups. Sarah Carson had been invited to join a EuroPCR AHPs’ committee. Chris Loder had attended a recent TCT conference. It was reiterated that on each of these occasions, representatives should be seeking opportunities to share learning and practice.

The meeting ended and everyone was escorted to the local taxi rank to return to Piccadilly Railway station.

Bryan Walker

Radiographer Representative

BCIS Working Group

Clinical Lead Radiographer Manchester Royal Infirmary, Catheter Labs

3 January 2014