P367 Developing the gastroenterology/endoscopy workforce for 2025 and beyond: implications for endoscopy and bowel cancer screening

Ravindran, Vathsan; Penman, Ian; Coleman, Mark; Veitch, A.; Fearnhead, Nicola; Logan, R. P. H.

doi:10.1136/gutjnl-2020-bsgcampus.441

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Adjusting these endoscopists’ job plans to allow more endoscopy sessions would substantially increase UK endoscopy capacity. It has been suggested that a substantial proportion of endoscopists would be willing to perform more lists if there was a national steer towards this approach,16 accompanied by local willingness to review and adjust job plans. If job plans for endoscopists performing low annual procedure numbers cannot be adjusted, a logical solution may be for endoscopists to focus on a single procedure type.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

UK endoscopy workload and workforce patterns: is there potential to increase capacity? A BSG analysis of the National Endoscopy Database

Beaton

Sharp

Trudgill

et al. 2022

Frontline Gastroenterol

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

BackgroundThe lack of comprehensive national data on endoscopy activity and workforce hampers strategic planning. The National Endoscopy Database (NED) provides a unique opportunity to address this in the UK. We evaluated NED to inform service planning, exploring opportunities to expand capacity to meet service demands.DesignData on all procedures between 1 March 2019 and 29 February 2020 were extracted from NED. Endoscopy activity and endoscopist workforce were analysed.Results1 639 640 procedures were analysed (oesophagogastroduodenoscopy (OGD) 693 663, colonoscopy 586 464, flexible sigmoidoscopy 335 439 and endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography 23 074) from 407 sites by 4990 endoscopists. 89% of procedures were performed in NHS sites. 17% took place each weekday, 10% on Saturdays and 6% on Sundays. Training procedures accounted for 6% of total activity, over 99% of which took place in NHS sites. Median patient age was younger in the independent sector (IS) (51 vs 60 years, p<0.001). 74% of endoscopists were male. Gastroenterologists and surgeons each comprised one-third of the endoscopist workforce; non-medical endoscopists (NMEs) comprised 12% yet undertook 23% of procedures. Approximately half of endoscopists performing OGD (52%) or colonoscopies (48%) did not meet minimum annual procedure numbers.ConclusionThis comprehensive analysis reveals endoscopy workload and workforce patterns for the first time across both the NHS and the IS in all four UK nations. Half of all endoscopists perform fewer than the recommended minimum annual procedure numbers: a national strategy to address this, along with expansion of the NME workforce, would increase endoscopy capacity, which could be used to exploit latent weekend capacity.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%