In 2020, we gave a grant of £100,000 to The Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospitals Charity towards an ‘extracorporeal membrane oxygenation’ (ECMO) unit during the first Covid-19 wave. ECMO is a treatment that adds oxygen to the blood and pumps it through the body in a similar way to the heart.
We are delighted to learn that the ECMO teams at Royal Brompton and Harefield have recently been recognised as centres of excellence by the Extracorporeal Life Support Organsation (ELSO). Harefield Hospital won the gold award, while the Royal Brompton ECMO service received the platinum award, for a second time, in the ELSO awards for Excellence in Life Support. According to its criteria, a designated centre of excellence is one that has demonstrated extraordinary achievement in three categories. Excellence in:
• promoting the mission, activities, and vision of ELSO
• patient care by using the highest quality measures, processes, and structures based upon evidence
• training, education, collaboration, and communication supporting ELSO guidelines that contribute to a healing environment for families, patients and staff
We would like to send our huge congratulations to the teams at Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospitals for receiving these acollades and for their continued dedication to improving the lives of patients in their care. You can read more about this grant here.