More than 30 people, many of them students from Calderdale College, attended a members’ event run by our Membership Office last week.

'Health Matters: Behind the scenes in the operating theatre' was presented by CHuFT Awards finalists, Amy Shedden (left) and Emma Mooney, Clinical Operations Managers for Transformation and Modernisation.

They were joined by Nick Barrett, Implementation Specialist from CMR Surgical, the company who supplied us with the new robot that we have in theatres at HRI. Nick gave the audience an insight into how the robot has contributed to improved outcomes for patients, with shorter lengths of stay and quicker recovery times.

Amy told the audience: “Working in theatres isn’t really like you see on the TV. It’s not like Casualty or Grey’s Anatomy and believe it or not we don’t see an awful lot of blood either!

“We have more than 100 colleagues working in our theatres and every single one has a role to play. If one person is missing, then the patient’s procedure can’t take place.”

Membership and Engagement Manager, Vanessa Henderson, said: “It was great to welcome so many students to the event, as well as some of our long-standing members. Feedback was overwhelmingly positive, with comments like ‘engaging’, ‘very good’, ‘very informative’ and ‘today was brilliant’.

“We’re now busy planning our next event which will take place next spring.”

As a Foundation Trust, we have a membership community made up of people who may use our services (public members) and staff employed by the Trust (staff members). You can read more on the Membership pages of the intranet.

Theatres facts

There are nine theatres at each hospital site, which includes three in our Elective Surgery Unit at HRI.

The Theatres Team consists of:

• One theatre manager in each unit
• A clinical educator
• Two transformation and modernisation managers
• Theatre sister/charge nurses and deputy in each theatre and recovery
• Multiple senior operating department practitioners (ODPs)
• Staff nurses/ODPs
• Assistant theatre practitioners
• Receptionist at each site
• Orderlies and porters
• Procurement
• Cleaners

They also work closely with the anaesthetists and surgeons, radiographers, pharmacy and multiple other members of the Multi-Disciplinary Team (MDT).