A PIONEERING unit at Ipswich Hospital has won international acclaim for its work, it emerged today.
A PIONEERING unit at Ipswich Hospital has won international acclaim for its work, it emerged today.
The hospital's acute medical unit team was praised at the first international conference of the Society of Acute Medicine.
The conference saw teams working in acute medicine across the world submit research presentations, and the Ipswich unit's work was judged the best of all the entries.
Dr Nicola Trepte, lead clinician of the unit said: "Our presentation focused on what is the effect of a consultant presence in an acute medical unit, and we were delighted to come first out of 79 entries.
"Our detailed research has shown that the unit improves people's life expectancies and by having an acute medical consultant physically present in the unit we are able to reduce the length of time each patient who is seen by a consultant stays in hospital by 1.3 days.”
The unit, which was set up in 2004, provides patients with rapid access to consultants and sees about 1,000 people each month.
It has three elements; an assessment centre, an observation ward and a short-stay ward.
According to the hospital since the unit was set up it has had a significant impact on reducing the number of unnecessary admissions to hospital.
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