A newly renovated fracture clinic at St Richard’s Hospital will allow fracture patients to be seen more quickly and will reduce the length of time from referral to first appointment for elective patients.
Previously A&E, the Urgent Treatment Centre (UTC) and the trauma and orthopaedic service at St Richard’s all shared the same facilities to treat patients.
This new fracture clinic for both fracture outpatients and elective patients, is separate from emergency and urgent care, increasing the capacity of our trauma and orthopaedic service and the care it can provide.
As well as a larger and lighter space, the refurbished clinic includes a plaster room, individual consultation rooms and additional space to allow for physiotherapists and occupational therapists to join clinics on a regular basis.
The former clinic, with only four cubicles, had multiple departments utilising its space which caused a struggle with capacity, constricted the care colleagues were able to provide and made the patient experience longer.
Now, patients can be seen much quicker in a dedicated clinic seeing from 100 to 150 patients a day.
Patients can now also avoid a much busier waiting area that wasn’t exclusive to the fracture clinic, with the newly refurbished clinic hosting its own, much more spacious waiting room away from urgent care.
The clinic offers increased privacy with the addition of consultation rooms and separate areas that can be used for patients and relatives to have more in-depth discussions about complex treatment and procedures.
The addition of multi-disciplinary team (MDT) rooms enables space for professionals from one or more specialities to make decisions regarding recommended treatment of patients, as well as being utilised for training.
Mr Madhu Rao, Consultant Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgeon is also the Clinical Director of Musculoskeletal Services and oversees the service.
He said: “Our previous clinic was built in 1996, and since then, our trauma and orthopaedic workforce has more than doubled, so the fracture clinic space was no longer fit for purpose. Also, sharing facilities with other departments added pressure and made turn around for our patients much slower.
“Having been involved in the design of this new clinic and the decision of how we would use this new workspace, we’ve been able to create a new clinic that meets our patients’ needs and improves their experience.