While we celebrate the 20th anniversary of the opening of the Sharoe Green Maternity Unit at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals, what will the next 20 years look like for maternity services?
Dr Amy Fisher is a Consultant Gynaecological Oncology Surgeon with the Trust, and Directorate Training Lead for Women’s Health, and was an academic trainee, returning towards the end of her training before becoming a consultant.
She feels the mix of youth and experience among the staff is a major asset: “I think we’ve got a great team, we’re quite a young consultant work force, which has its advantages. There are times where we look to our more senior colleagues for guidance, but we are the ones who will be here in 20 years’ time, and now need to think about how we want our service to be, what we want for the women of Lancashire and South Cumbria.
“We are a centre for the area for gynae cancer, so we bring in ladies from East Lancashire, Blackpool, Morecambe Bay, South Cumbria, and we’re involved in a big maternal medicine network as well, we have a good team here.”
Dr Fisher was trained on the DaVinci Xi robotic system and is now one of the robotic surgeons. Preston have had the robot for gynae cancer since 2017, which is able to improve outcomes for patients with cancer, with notable surgeries including a combined robotic procedure to treat both bowel and womb cancer in the same patient.
She explained: “The robot is better for patients, it has 4D vision, and there’s not as much pressure on the abdomen, there’s less tension on the tissues and it’s gentler. And for a surgeon, rather than being stood for hours, it’s easier for us as well.
“I think we will do more and more robotically, there are certain gynae cancers which will become more medically managed, ovarian cancers specifically, because chemotherapy and medical treatment has improved so much. There will be more focus on prevention of cancer so more people may have surgery earlier to try and prevent cancer as we understand more biologically and genetically about cancer.”
There is much pride in the Sharoe Green Unit, which officially opened in September 2004 and continues to go from strength to strength: “It’s a great unit to be part of, and it’s great for women that they have the majority of their care here, from being a child with gynaecological problems, to being an elderly lady with gynaecological problems – it's all here. You can have your children here – I've not worked in many hospitals where it’s all here in a standalone unit within the hospital grounds.
“We have the benefit of being our own little bubble, with the expertise of all our colleagues close by. It’s a great place to work and a great place to live.”
