Wrexham

Department Profile

Wrexham Maelor Emergency Department serves a mixed urban and rural extending into North, Mid Wales & Shropshire. The ethos in Wrexham ED has always been of Consultant/senior delivered care, which is the key for timely and safe decision making for patients, evidenced in the literature, resulting in a lower than usual admission rate and vital for support and training of junior medical doctors. As part of this philosophy the ED Consultants have participated in a unique hybrid night shift rota with the middle grades since 2007/2008 (one of the first, if not the first nationally).

Firmly embedded as a Trauma Unit as part of the North-West Midlands Trauma Network since 2012, and having recently undergone national peer review process, the Wrexham team are focussed to improving the pathways and care of patients with severe injuries, with close working with the Networks and Major Trauma Centre, Royal Stoke University Hospital.

Co-location of GP Out of Hours service exists as per RCEM guidance, with a current new build being undertaken to further enhance this.

The advantages of working in a District General Hospital are the established close working relationship with all specialties; this is further evidenced by the relationship with the Cardiology team, with numerous ambulatory care pathways for chest pain & dysrhythmias, a large proportion of which are managed by primary cardioversion under procedural sedation and ambulatory arrhythmia clinic follow up. In addition to this, Wrexham is a site for the multi-centred Rapid CTCA trial evaluating the early access to CT Coronary Angiograms in low risk patients with Ischaemic Heart Disease.

This close multi-specialty working is further demonstrated by opportunities for an ED managed emergency airway service, for those with the necessary requisite skills with collaboration with anaesthesia and intensive care colleagues, with Wrexham being one of the 5 UK centres that hosts the RCoA & RCEM’s co-owned Training in Emergency Airway Management (TEAM) course.

In addition to this the senior medical team are experienced procedural sedationists using a variety of pharmacological options with extensive opportunity for the less experienced to develop and hone these skills further.

Finally, with the Chair of RCEM Wales, and Vice-President of RCEM, as well as RCEM examiners and experienced life support instructors and course directors, time spent in Wrexham offers opportunities to progress in the vibrant, exciting, and ever changing specialty of Emergency Medicine, with numerous previous doctors choosing or defecting to EM from other specialties in addition to well supported previous, and current successful CESR applicants