BREAKTHROUGH: Tyrone woman returns home just hours after getting new hip
Tracey Murphy-Kelly first patient to go home hours following op
Last updated 5th Jul 2019
A Caledon woman has undergone surgery for a new hip - and been able to leave hospital just hours after the operation.
Tracey Murphy-Kelly had her surgery in Craigavon Hospital - and was discharged as part of a new programme being rolled out in the Southern Health Trust.
Earlier in the year the hospital piloted a similar scheme with partial knee replacements.
Tracey told Downtown & Cool FM at just 46, she felt fit enough to go home as soon as possible and asked her Orthopaedic team:
"I felt more than ready to get home, I was up and about," she said.
"Rather than take the time with me there were some elderly people in there who needed a bit more help and a bit more time.
"You're in your own surroundings, you're not dependent on other people you can get up when you want, you can move about when you want.
"In hospital you find that you don't want to disturb people."
And she says it could go some way to tackling long waiting lists here:
"It's hard to see people suffer and I am hoping that the likes of the one-day hip replacement will bring those lists down.
"I originally was under a different consultant and I would've had to have waited maybe a year to even just get an appointment to speak to him, never mind possibly another year to get the hip done.
"I got a phone call to ask if I would consider moving Consultant to Mr Magill and it was super fast.
"Hopefully this will speed it up for other people so they don't have to wait six months of a year in a lot of pain."
Southern Trust Head of Trauma & Orthopaedics Mrs Brigeen Kelly explained how the fast-track programme works:
"Mr Paul Magill, Consultant Surgeon and Dr Nidhi Gupta, Consultant Anaesthetist lead a motivated and innovative team who have worked very hard to identify and make a series of small changes and improvements to the processes involved in a hip replacement operation.
Brigeen added: "Internationally, same-day discharge has been shown to decrease the need for strong painkillers and improve patient outcome.
"This is the second recent success for the Orthopaedic department in Craigavon Area Hospital having started day-case partial knee replacements earlier this year following a successful trial."