Newsroom
Speedy fix for patients as Trust develops innovative trauma service
Patients attending West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust with a trauma now benefit from rapid access to day surgery as part of an innovative service.
The day surgery trauma list, a new concept in the UK, has been designed to improve the experience of patients who need to have surgery quickly, but who don’t need to wait in a hospital bed while they are being scheduled for their operation. The service is helping to manage demand on emergency services, reduce costs, and improve patient experience.
When patients attend the emergency department with a trauma and are assessed as needing low-risk surgery as soon as possible they are now scheduled into West Suffolk Hospital’s day surgery unit instead of the main operating theatre. This means they can go home rather than wait for their surgery in a hospital bed and are discharged home again on the same day as they have their operation. Typically patients are kept in beds on inpatient wards while they wait for a slot in the hospital’s main operating theatres.
The day surgery unit trauma list caters to injuries such as wrist, ankle and finger fractures, removal of foreign bodies, and removal of wires. If these procedures were scheduled to take place in normal theatre, as in other trusts, the operations can sometimes be cancelled in favour of more urgent trauma cases that come in. Because these services have been moved to the day surgery unit, patients at West Suffolk Hospital are given a set time and date and are seen according to schedule, without the chance of other patients taking priority, and can go home that later that day.
Mr Matthew Porteous, consultant orthopaedic surgeon at West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust, said: “This service has been developed here as a more efficient route to surgery for patients experiencing a trauma.
“The key to success is pain management, and giving our patients the relevant information. We inject a local anaesthetic to the affected trauma site after the procedure is finished so that patients still have pain relief for hours after they have been operated on. This means they can go home comfortably within the day, with an information pack of how to look after their cast and manage their pain over the following weeks. Our patients appreciate the efficiency of what we do, and the clarity of their treatment, and they don’t need to be kept in hospital any longer than necessary.
“We’re now helping other hospitals introduce this innovation for their own services.”
The implementation of this new service at West Suffolk Hospital was recently recognised by the British Association of Day Surgery. Staff nurse Kelly Overton presented how the team has introduced the new trauma list in day surgery and early findings about the positive impact it has had on patient care. She secured the gold award at the event, coming top out of 30 other Trusts attending.
Kelly said: “What we are doing may seem obvious, but in essence to make it work you need a fantastic team behind you with lots of energy. We are proving that this is a safe and cost effective way of managing our trauma cases. We save our patients time but we are also cost effective by reducing demand for hospital beds. However, the primary reason we have introduced this trauma list is to improve the patient experience. Because of our success, we are looking to expand the types of procedures that are offered in day surgery, such as clavicle fractures. We are also keen to educate other trusts across the country to help them implement similar services in their area.”
Jackie Collins, 54, a teacher from Suffolk, came to West Suffolk Hospital after falling over on her driveway and hurting her wrist. Following assessment in the emergency department, she was transferred to the day surgery unit as part of the trauma list and was seen and operated on within three days of her accident. Jackie said: “I’m really happy with the treatment I have received. Here I am, a couple of weeks after my operation, and I’m not even using any pain killers. It just aches a little bit.
“The process was so quick and efficient, with reminders about appointments and helpful staff every step of the way. I won’t be racing out the front door so much as I’d rather not have to return for surgery any time soon but it’s definitely a wonderful service they provide. The speed at which I was seen and operated on was amazing and it couldn’t have gone any better.”
Back to Newsroom