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Super Saturday helps patients get a better grip on life
A team in the West Suffolk Hospital’s Day Surgery Unit have completed an incredible 47 carpal tunnel surgeries in one ‘Super Saturday’ on 22 February 2025.
Super Saturdays, which are part of a 12-month programme to reduce waiting times, allow the West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust’s highly skilled and motivated multi-disciplinary teams of clerks, porters, nurses, theatre practitioners, support workers and doctors to ensure patients are seen as quickly as possible.
Mr Michael Dunne, trauma and orthopaedic surgeon, said: “Carpal tunnel syndrome can be an extremely achy and painful condition, which people can experience in their fingers, hands or arms, severely affecting everyday life.
“It is brilliant that through the efforts of our waiting list and clinical teams and a quick procedure, we can give so many people their lives back, helping them regain their independence and return to doing the things they love most.”
With 154 patients having been waiting for the procedure before the Super Saturday, and with another one planned for Saturday, 29 March, these days will mean 65% of patients on the Trust’s waiting list receive the care and treatment they need more quickly.
On the day, the teams utilised all three operating theatres at the Bury St Edmund’s based hospital’s Day Surgery Unit, bringing together a team of more than 20 members of staff.
This comes after the ophthalmology department completed two consecutive ‘Super Saturdays’ on 1 and 8 February, where more than 200 patients were seen over two days, which included a mix of procedures and check-ups, such as eye scans, injection treatment, and medical retina and age-related macular degeneration reviews.
Nicola Cottington, chief operating officer for the Trust, said: “This is another example of how we’re innovating to provide our patients with the care they deserve when they need it most. These minor surgical procedures are ideal for high-volume weekend working, which also releases capacity during the week for those patients requiring more extensive orthopaedic surgery.
“I’d like to thank everyone involved in this Super Saturday, the porters, the waiting list team, the ward staff, and of course the teams of doctors and nurses for their herculean efforts which will mean so much for our patients.”
The Trust is planning more ‘Super Saturdays’ across a range of specialties, such as general and plastic surgery between now and the end of March.
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