Clinical Services Plan – Changes to orthopaedics скачать в хорошем качестве

Clinical Services Plan – Changes to orthopaedics

Orthopaedics is one of the nine services included in our Clinical Services Plan. Our services are fragile and need to change. Our Board met in February and decided on the next steps for orthopaedics at Hywel Dda. What is orthopaedics? Orthopaedics, also known as orthopaedic surgery, focuses on the care of the musculoskeletal system and its parts, such as bones, joints and soft tissue. The change to orthopaedics is for planned orthopaedics and not emergency (trauma) orthopaedics. Why does orthopaedics need to change? Our main hospitals provide planned orthopaedic services. We also provide orthopaedic outpatient clinics in Cardigan Integrated Care Centre, South Pembrokeshire Hospital and Tenby Hospital. Our staff provide outpatient clinics at Tywyn Hospital, run by Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, to reduce some travel for patients. During the COVID-19 pandemic, some temporary changes were made to planned orthopaedics in our area. In 2021, inpatient care at Withybush was transferred to Prince Philip, but day cases remained. This was due to new national standards, and without the available resource to address this at the hospital. The main challenge in orthopaedic services is that we need to increase our activity to reduce long waiting times for patients. What did the Board decide? Our Board chose Option D for orthopaedics from our consultation. In Option D Withybush Hospital will expand its orthopaedics service to focus on delivering a higher volume of less complex orthopaedic day case procedures – the kind of surgery where patients can come in and go home the same day. Prince Philip Hospital will continue to provide more complex planned care for local and regional patients. The option also includes expanding surgical services at Bronglais Hospital so that more patients living locally, can receive their operations there. The Board also agreed to look at how we could extend the hours the service is available, which may involve longer working days or weekends. This suggestion was taken from another option suggested by our community during the consultation and needs us to do more work to look at how this can be achieved. How will this benefit patients? Enabling Withybush hospital to focus on less complex orthopaedic procedures will mean that we can see more patients who need those services quicker. Working across our region, together with Swansea Bay University Health Board could mean that some patients could receive care outside the Hywel Dda area but will be seen sooner. The expanded service at Bronglais will enable more patients to receive surgery locally, while patients from Pembrokeshire will continue to travel to Prince Philip Hospital for overnight inpatient procedures, as they do now. More therapy support is planned in the future, but this will need more staff and further investment. The Board felt that this option allows each hospital to focus on what it does best, helping our teams work more effectively and reduce waiting times for patients. What happens next? Over the coming months, we will be developing our implementation plans for this service change. We will communicate with our patients and communities ahead of any changes being made. In the meantime, our patients will continue to access orthopaedic services in the same way as they currently do. We know that this change may mean that some patients will need to travel further to access care – but we are committed to continue working with our staff and communities. We want everyone to have the best care possible in the safest place. In short… In short, we are changing orthopaedic services so that: • More orthopaedic day surgeries will be done at Withybush • Complex surgeries will be carried out at Prince Philip • There will be an expanded service at Bronglais • We will be able to provide faster treatment and more local access