New approach to surgery in Goole aims to get patients home quicker
It's hoped this will help speed up recovery from some operations
Last updated 14th Sep 2023
It's hoped patients will benefit from a new approach developed by medical teams across East Yorkshire which will see them go home on the same day as having surgery.
From last month those patients who fit certain criteria in orthopaedics and urology have been able to have their operation at Goole and get up and about a couple of hours after they have left the operating theatre.
This means they can go home the same day without having to stay in the hospital overnight. It's hoped this will help with their recovery time.
Kerry Owen, Outpatient Department and Surgery and Critical Care Matron at Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust (NLaG), said:
“Research shows patients recover better from surgery in their own homes with their home comforts and families around them.
“Whilst this isn’t suitable for all patients, when it is appropriate we have been working with our teams to make sure we can support patients in and out of the hospital on the same day. This has also enabled more operations to take place and patients to be seen sooner.”
The plan has been developed by staff at NLaG and Hull University Hospital Trust (HUTH) to treat more patients and reduce waiting lists in some areas of work. The aim is to set up a surgical hub at Goole so patients from across the Humber can have their operation there even if it's not their nearest hospital. It's hoped that will speed up the process for some.
Since the first week of August, the theatres at Goole and District Hospital have been available for use for both NLaG and HUTH operating teams to undertake hip and knee replacements and low complexity urology operations five days a week.
In the first four weeks 44 orthopaedic patients had their operation done following this change of approach and, of those, six patients have been able to go home on the same day. Another 30 patients have been able to go home the day after their surgery.
Mr Ricardo Pacheco, a Consultant Surgeon at NLaG, said:
“I am immensely proud of what our joint teams have been able to achieve in the first few weeks. We know getting patients up and about swiftly when they have a knee or hip replacement can really help them recover more quickly.
“We have been working to be able to reduce the length of time many patients stay in the hospital since last October and now working to develop this new pathway and to have some patients go home on the same day has been fantastic.
“We need to keep learning and refining what we do so we can see and treat even more patients and start to give them back their quality of life after living with pain and hearing their feedback has been extremely positive.”