Now you can have a hip op and make it back for tea!

A HIP-replacement patient has become the first in the country to be discharged from hospital on the same day as his operation.

The breakthrough could save the NHS millions as more than 95,000 hip replacements are performed by the NHS in England each year and typically involve a hospital stay of three to five days.

A day in a hospital bed costs the NHS £400 on average and increases the chance of a patient developing heart problems and becoming infected with superbugs such as MRSA.

Surgeons at Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust are conducting a trial with 20 patients to see if they can operate without keeping them in overnight.

Chris Walker, 71, was booked into Castle Hill Hospital in Hull at 7.30am last Monday – and discharged ten hours later.

‘It has been great,’ the retired elec-trician said from his home in Beverley, East Yorkshire.

‘It is certainly more relaxed being here than being in a hospital situation and I’m looking forward to being able to walk the dog and get on my bike again. Once I was out of surgery the only thing they could do for me in hospital was to look after me and manage the pain.

‘But my wife Barbara and I are quite able to do that at home.’

Patients have only been selected to take part in the trial if they are other-wise fit and healthy.

They will each undergo intensive pre-op physiotherapy, as well as learn-ing how to use crutches and other mobility techniques before the opera-tion. Following the surgery, physio-therapists ensure the patients can get up and down stairs and then they are discharged.

The project relies on high- quality after care, with each participant given six weeks of physiotherapy at home.

The patients are also given a tablet computer with dedicated rehabilita-tion information and detailed instruc-tions about medication.

If they have any problems the patients are able to contact their hos-pital team via video-chat.

Consultant orthopaedic surgeon Elizabeth Moulder, who is leading the project, said: ‘There has been a gradual change in attitudes over recent years.

‘When hip replacements were first done patients would be in bed for two weeks post- surgery, but there has been increasing awareness that early mobility reduces the risk of heart attack and stroke.

‘So long as we can guarantee they are getting the same care and physio-therapy support in or out of hospital, people would rather be at home.’

The trial has been part-funded by Sheffield firm JRI Orthopaedics, which makes the Furlong hip implants used in the trial.

The company is entirely owned by charity Orthopaedic Research UK, which donates its profits to research into bone and joint medicine.

‘More relaxed than hospital’