Operation success
Shake-up sees patients spend less time in hospital and fewer surgeries cancelled
Patients are spending less time in hospital and have fewer cancelled operations following a shake up of the trauma and orthopaedic services in Lanarkshire.
Services were reconfigured in November, with inpatient services moving from Monklands and being concentrated at Wishaw and Hairmyres.
Figures obtained by the Wishaw Press show that in June last year 27 people had cancelled operations out of a total of 316 ( 8.5 per cent) compared to eight of 281 operations were cancelled ( 2.85 per cent) in December last year.
NHS Lanarkshire insist the redesign has facilitated a whole range of improvements to surgical services across Lanarkshire and that
Since the implementation of the changes to T&O emergency patients are spending approximately eight days in hospital in December last year compared to 10 in February 16.
Dr Jane Burns, NHS Lanarkshire’s divisional medical director, said: “The review of trauma and services has been a success story for the patients of Lanarkshire.
“We are delighted to see the benefits we outlined last year are now being realised within trauma and orthopaedics.
“We have reduced the length of time trauma patients spend in hospital and we have seen a reduction in the number of cancelled operations as well.
“We have also seen a number of improvements delivered at Monklands due to the additional capacity that has been created by transferring T& O surgery to Hairmyres and Wishaw. This has included establishing a planned investigation unit which is being used to trial an outpatient alternative for patients who would previously have required an inpatient bed.”
The move is the first phase of NHS Lanarkshire’s long- term aim to move to a single trauma site in Lanarkshire and a single site for elective orthopaedic procedures.
This is in line with the national strategy of developing a Major Trauma Network across the West of Scotland, and was the subject of public consultation as part of NHS Lanarkshire’s draft health care strategy Achieving Excellence.
Calum Campbell, chief executive of NHS Lanarkshire, added: “Our aim is to ensure we can provide safe, sustainable trauma and orthopaedic services for patients and it is extremely encouraging we’re beginning to see benefits as a result of the first phase of the redesign.
“We now need to work towards delivering phase two of a single trauma site and a single elective site which are we are confident will deliver further improvements to patients.”