24 February 2011

It was while watching his wife suffer painful medical procedures as a burns patient that Waikato Hospital anaesthetist Chris Jephcott was prompted to dedicate the past four years to improving pain management for burns and other patients.

That resulted in the awarding of a visiting lectureship in anaesthesia as well as the chance to present his work at the New Zealand Pain Society meeting next month.

It all started eight years ago when Dr Jephcott and his wife Mel were involved in a house fire.

Mel sustained significant burns to 20 per cent of her body, which was the start of a protracted course for her that involved weeks in the Waikato Hospital Burns Unit, two years in compression garments and several corrective operations.

“Despite the exemplary care of the health professionals looking after her as an inpatient, when Mel looks back on all of these experiences she still remembers her worst moments as the burns dressing changes that were attempted on the ward with minimal access to adequate analgesia,” said Dr Jephcott.

“As an anaesthetic trainee at the time I was able to access help for Mel from senior colleagues who provided her with a level of sedation and analgesia more in keeping with the nature of the procedures.

“While we remain truly grateful for this intervention we were also conscious of the fact that this was a facility that was uniquely available to her.”

Dr Jephcott says the experience highlighted to him a deficiency in the provision of care to a most vulnerable patient group.

In January 2007, when Dr Jephcott was appointed as a specialist anaesthetist and head of the Acute Pain Service at Waikato Hospital, one of the priorities he set for the service was to address its involvement in the management of burns patients requiring ward-based procedures at Waikato.

He has recently had an article published about his team’s work in the New Zealand Society of Anaesthesia newsletter and will later this year visit departments around the country to present and discuss the initiatives.

The initiatives include patient administered pain relief using a Penthrox inhaler, which aside from being an effective form of pain relief; can also be used to improve theatre efficiency.

“We were able to identify procedures that could be carried out using a Penthrox-based sedation technique within a few hours of admission as opposed to the 1-4 nights in hospital that was required if carried out under general anaesthesia,” said Dr Jephcott.

His team’s work has been acknowledged in various local and regional awards previously including Waikato District Health Board’s Best of Health Awards in 2008.

The prize money was channelled into various initiatives including financial support for Sue King, one of the team’s clinical nurse specialists, who successfully became New Zealand’s first nurse practitioner with prescribing rights in pain management.

Now Dr Jephcott says he’s just hopeful that some of Waikato’s techniques will prove applicable to other health care providers.

Visit www.waikatodhb.govt.nz/forstaff to read more about Dr Jephcott’s story.

ENDS