Essex & Herts Air Ambulance has won a prestigious national award from the Royal College of Pathologists for going ‘above and beyond’ in pathology with its pioneering new model for patient case review, designed to ensure it learns from every patient death.

The RCPath Achievement Awards celebrate excellence in pathology practice and promote high standards to deliver the best patient care. Essex & Herts Air Ambulance secured the Award for Pathology Service.

The Award recognises its pioneering collaboration with forensic pathologist Dr Ben Swift. The new approach sees the team routinely meet to discuss diagnoses and debate what opportunities, if any, might have benefited patients who sadly didn’t survive.

Access to post-mortem examination findings allows everyone in the team, from pre-hospital doctors and paramedics to patient and family liaison teams, to think about opportunities for improvement.

The approach is just one example of how Essex & Herts Air Ambulance is pushing the boundaries of medical care and striving to improve outcomes for patients in the future.

The Pathology team

Dr Gareth Grier, Associate Medical Director at Essex & Herts Air Ambulance said, “We’re so proud to be recognised for this important work. When patients don’t survive, we are forever thinking about what we might be able to do differently and that’s what sparked this idea. Working with Ben means we can have sight of all aspects of the care and are able to make improvements for patients in the future’’.

More detail on the approach can be found here: https://ehaat.org/blog/publication-highlights-the-importance-of-collaborative-learning/