Enhanced Recovery Programme – ‘Early discharge’ plan for hospital patients

Published: 05 August, 2010
by TOM FOOT

NHS hospitals in north London, including the Whittington and the Royal Free Hospital, will begin discharging patients much earlier than expected after a cost-cutting “recovery” programmes was introduced.

Doctors claim the Enhanced Recovery Programme (ERP) will mean “less pain and fewer complications” for hospital patients.

ERP – which has a total of £134,000 funding for five hospitals across north London – includes a number of changes, including giving patients more information before and after surgery. It will see more patients admitted on the same day of surgery, surgeons using short-acting anaesthetics and hospital staff ensuring early removal of catheters.

Doctors at the Whittington Hospital said, following a pilot of the system, that bowel surgery patients had on average been sent home five days earlier than expected. Knee replacement patients had been be “up and walking again” on the same day of their surgery, they added.

Director of research and innovation at the Whittington Hospital, Dr Martin Kuper, said ERP would help free-up bed space in hospitals and NHS bosses to reduce their financial deficit.

He said: “In North Central London we carry out nearly 2,500 knee and hip replacements each year and the average length of stay is over a week – if this was reduced by three days it would save nearly £2million. In the current financial climate it is essential we use resources as efficiently as possible. 

“With enhanced recovery we could treat patients with painful conditions sooner each year and give them full mobility again without increasing costs.”