Endocrine Abstracts

The GIRFT (Getting It Right First Time) visits, about which we have consulted the membership of the Society for Endocrinology and had positive feedback from many members, have now started. We have done four pilots in Birmingham, Leicester, Oxford and York. The objectives are to try to introduce a quantitative approach to help demonstrate best practice. It will explore surgical outcome data and complication rates with regard to thyroid, parathyroid, adrenal, pituitary and neuroendocrine surgery where applicable. It is also looking at the number and experience of endocrinologists and surgeons. Evidence suggests that high volume surgeons deliver better outcomes, but there is still over x% of operations done by surgeons doing less than y operations a year. We need to reduce the number of low volume surgeons in terms of adrenal, pituitary and less frequently thyroid. To improve quality nationally, there also has to be a focus on correctly coding activity, which is highly variable across the UK and this will improve the profile of the specialty. Differentiating specialised from non-specialised endocrinology will help promote the importance of the specialty and improve funding. We are looking also to improve the delivery of outpatient care in endocrinology especially for those travelling long distances in terms of the steadily rising numbers of outpatients. Lastly we need to make sure there are adequate multidisciplinary tier 3 services for patients with an obesity problem in every hospital. Currently only 50% of the population is covered. Next year we aim to publish a review of the data jointly with the Society for Endocrinology which together will provide a national report.