Thoracic surgery

University College Hospital at Westmoreland Street offers a full range of thoracic surgery procedures, a large proportion of which are undertaken via video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) keyhole surgery procedures.

Education & Research are fundamental roles in our department, within the last year we have started a robotic programme using the Davinci system to treat our more complex patients with minimal invasive surgery, which reduces the recovery time for our patients.

Conditions treated
We provide a range of services for our patients from diagnostic surgery such as Lung Biopsies to more complex ones like Lobectomies. We did over 780 cases in 2015-2016, our waiting times are very short and we offer high quality care in very comfortable surroundings. Many of our operations (around half in 2015-16) were undertaken by video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS), keyhole surgery which reduces the recovery time/length of hospital stay.

We offer our patients the following range of services:
Diagnostic:
- Bronchoscopy
- Lung/pleural biopsy
- Mediastinoscopy
- Mediastinotomy
Curative:
- Decortification
- Lobectomy
- Metastatectomy
- Pleurodesis
- Pneumonectomy
- Resections
- Surgical intervention for emphysema
Palliative:
- Drainage of effusion
- Metastatectomy with palliative intent
- Pleurodesis
Patient support services
The thoracic surgery nurse specialist provides dedicated and personal support for the entire patient journey. One of the team will speak to the patients by phone prior to their admission to assess all aspects of their needs in the hospital and their aftercare (such as patient transport).
We provide an outpatient service for our local residents at UCH at Westmoreland Street & UCH Macmillan Cancer Centre, we also run out-reach clinics at Barnet General, North Middlesex Hospital, Princess Alexandra Hospital, Ashford & St Peters Hospital, Bedford Hospital and starting soon at Whittington Hospital.
Patient aftercare
The thoracic surgery nurse specialist coordinates all aspects of aftercare and continuing support services.
Our staff
We currently have 5 Consultants, supported by 4 SpRs, 2 Clinical Nurse Specialists, 1 Pre-assessment nurse and 1 Clinical Nurse Practitioner. Inpatients services are based on our 23 bedded ward on 4th floor at UCH at Westmoreland, the sister in charge is Mohita Mungur and our matron is Paula O’Brien.

Mr Marco Scarci	Thoracic surgery
Mr Martin Hayward	Thoracic surgery
Mr Nikolaos Panagiotopoulos	Thoracic surgery
Dr David Lawrence	Thoracic surgery
Mr Robert S. George	Thoracic surgery