A SECOND minor procedure room for hand surgery has opened at Llandudno Hospital to help reduce waiting times.
The room is based on the Maes Du Ward within the community hospital and operations such as carpal tunnel, removal of small tissue cysts and tendon procedures can be carried out there.
This follows the successful opening of the first minor procedure room in Wrexham Maelor Hospital earlier this year.
Edwin Jesudason, Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon who is carrying out the surgery at Llandudno Hospital, said: “Almost any minor hand operation under local anaesthetic can be carried out in this clinical area. The only procedures that we are unable to carry out there are those that would require general anaesthetic or a major nerve block, and surgery requiring implants.
“We are delighted to get this minor procedure room up and running, we find our patients are much more relaxed coming in for their surgery as they are not waiting on the ward and don’t need to change to a hospital gown such as they would in theatres.”
Elspeth Mills, of Pwllheli, was amongst the first group of patients to have the procedure at Llandudno Hospital in recent weeks.
Elspeth needed a tendon transfer operation following a wrist fracture around three years ago which left her struggling to open her hand fully, making it extremely difficult to grasp items properly and wear gloves.
She said: “Since my accident it has generally got worse to cope with as I have been unable to properly open my hand which makes what would normally be simple tasks very difficult.
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“I was due to have the operation pre-covid but obviously that pushed everything back so I was really pleased to receive an appointment for the operation.
“I have had hand surgery before but that was in a main hospital theatre so this was very different. There was a lot of waiting around on the ward and I had to get changed, so this time was very different.
“It was a very relaxing atmosphere and I didn’t feel I was coming in for an operation as such, I can see why they want to do these procedures in this way, not just for the environmental benefits but also it’s a much better patient experience.”
Mr Jesudason is passionate about environmental sustainability and says this way of working is making a huge contribution to lowering the carbon footprint.
He said: “Operating theatres are waste hotspots – they use a large amount of energy for the ventilation systems, lighting, heating and water. In addition to this, opening large single use surgical drapes and large instrument sets generates an unnecessary volume of waste to be incinerated.
“By working in a procedure room we use smaller drapes and open fewer surgical instruments. It makes us more efficient and less wasteful.
"As a surgeon this makes me feel that I am doing all I can to mitigate the carbon footprint of the operation as much as possible.
"It also saves main operating theatres for major procedures, unlocking more vital capacity, as theatre space is always a premium.”
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