This Special Interview is taken from the 6th International Tracheostomy Symposium, held in Manchester UK, in October 2021.
Anu was a GP living and working in Manchester at the start of the pandemic. She became unwell and required ECMO as part of her care, leading to a long recovery period, most of it with a tracheostomy. The period of recovery as we try to gradually get patients off a ventilator is called "weaning" and this phase needs a coordinated multi-disciplinary team. This episode reunites Anu and the clinical team who cared for her once again. The team includes Prof Andrew Bentley (Respiratory and ICU), Prof Sarah Wallace (Speech and Language Therapy), Barbara Bonvento (Respiratory Physiotherapist) and Sr Yen Mon Tsang (Long-term Ventilation Unit).
Anu was about as unwell as it is possible to be without dying, supported by all the tools and teams that modern Intensive Care can provide. We are delighted to report that Anu made a full recovery, returned to her family, had another baby, and returned to work! We are so grateful to Anu and her family for sharing her story with us.
The UK National Tracheostomy Safety Project (NTSP) is committed to providing education, information and resources to improve patient safety and the patient experience for those with tracheostomies and laryngectomies. All of our resources are housed on our website www.tracheostomy.org.uk, accessed by over 30,000 visitors each month from around the world.
This is the only podcast to bring you literature reviews, hot topic discussions and interviews with healthcare staff, patients and families.
Our goal is to improve the safety and quality of care for patients with tracheostomies and laryngectomies through education. We work closely with patients, families and healthcare professionals to develop new resources to improve care. We’ve collaborated with key stakeholders in tracheostomy care since 2009, and developed freely accessible resources, supported by online learning developed with the UK Department of Health. We’ve worked with the Global Tracheostomy Collaborative since 2012 to improve care for patients and their families everywhere.
We are funded by grants, donations and in partnership with medical device companies through unrestricted awards. This podcast series is supported by unrestricted education funding from the Atos Learning Institute. The funding supports the professional production of the podcasts and videos, and the medical device companies that support us do not have any creative influence over the content that we record. All of our work is undertaken by volunteer healthcare staff, patients and their families.
Most of our content is supported by videos. You can access our training videos and resources for Basic Care, Emergency Care and Vocalisation & Swallowing. Download and print bedhead signs andemergency algorithms from our resources.
