9:20am Tuesday 31st August 2010
By Barry Nelson
A GROUP of North-East surgeons are taking the unusual step of climbing a mountain in Africa next month to buy sophisticated keyhole surgery equipment for use in their NHS hospital.
The consultants, from The James Cook University Hospital, in Middlesbrough, have insisted that they are doing this for fun, and not because the NHS will not stump up the cash.
Despite these assurances, the immediate past president of the Association of Laparoscopic Surgeons, Mike Parker, has expressed concern that many hospitals around the UK are using out-dated surgical instruments because the NHS is strapped for funds.
He said the NHS should be paying for new surgical instruments rather than relying on surgeons to raise the money.
Consultants Jo Cresswell, David Chadwick and Monica Hansrani, plan to climb Mount Kilimanjaro to raise money for the sophisticated equipment.
The expensive instruments are needed to support the development of minimally invasive surgery for patients in Teesside and North Yorkshire.
The trust already has an established laparoscopic (keyhole) surgical service, with surgeons regularly using the techniques to treat kidney and prostate cancer, but keyhole surgery requires lots of expensive specialised instruments.
The ascent of the Tanzanian mountain will take the group more than six days and in the climb of 19,340ft they will have to cope with altitude sickness.
Miss Cresswell said: “We have been very well supported.
“The trust has been very generous, and we have up-to-date equipment. This is happening because I really fancied climbing Kilimanjaro and asked a few friends to join me.”
Mr Parker, whose association is shortly to publish an online guide to keyhole-surgery centres in the UK, which will identify centres which are using outdated equipment, said: “I think it is almost unique for surgeons to do this sort of thing to pay for bread and butter equipment.
“It shouldn’t be their responsibility to pay for this. It really is the responsibility of the health service to provide theatre equipment of sufficient quality to allow surgeons to do advanced laparascopic surgery.”
A spokeswoman for the South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said: “The NHS is having to watch what it spends now. By doing this they can help the trust and set themselves a challenge.”
You can sponsor the team by visiting justgiving.com/cuttingedge or you can send contributions to Miss Cresswell’s secretary, Dept of Urology, The James Cook University Hospital, Marton Road, Middlesbrough, TS4 3BW.
Cheques should be made payable to South Tees NHS FT.
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