"Ankle replacement surgery"

In this day and age, we are all very quick to complain and moan about anything that doesn't go just the way we were hoping it might. So it's only fair that examples of good and exceptional service, to patients receiving treatment, should be recognised and encouraged as the model of how health care ought to be done.

What I found most reassuring was that staff members, clearly knowledgeable and enthusiastic about their role in the hospital, approached patients and each stage of their treatment with a pro-active attitude. There was little sign of people hanging around, waiting for someone else to do their part, before a patient was "ready" to be seen by themselves. They adopted the commonsense approach of: who or what else can I do at this moment, until that patient can be seen by me! This was particularly noticeable on my first, assessment appoint, where there are numerous measurements, discussions, detailed notes, etc to be recorded by multiple staff members. Nobody batted an eyelid, when they called out a patient's name in the waiting area, to discover that they'd just been whisked off by one of their colleagues. They just smiled and said OK then, who's next on my list? and off they went with someone else.

If you stopped a staff member to ask a question they were able to answer you themselves or directed reception staff to find out for you. Our experience was that we were sitting in the Orthopaedic waiting area for no more than 5 minutes at a time before another stage of this quite complex appointment was completed. We had arrived that morning, expecting to be there for a large part of the day, and instead, had seen everyone (and more!) that we possibly could have met by 11am. Our final meeting was with Mr Shah, the specialist surgeon, who took the time to discuss all the questions we had, explaining specific points of the procedure, asking about our personal activities, etc and relating how this procedure would affect us (+ve & -ve) in future.

He ask what I was hoping to get from this surgery (ankle replacement, needed to counter degeneration from 20+ Yr, multiple fracture and screw fixation) and I went on to explained that other doctors had been concerned that it may not be possible to repair this joint, but all I was hoping for was some movement/weight bearing without increasing pain levels. His answer was SO reassuring - he said he can do that, and was there anything else?

We left before lunch with a pre-ops appointment in 4 days time and the rest, as they say, is history!

PS exactly one week after my surgery (having been operated on, monitored through recovery, prescribed & administered pain meds, visited by physiotherapy and triple checked prior to discharge home that evening) I've received, in the post, written confirmation of the two follow up appointments in 2025 by Mr Shah as agreed.

In contrast, our local health centre phoned to ask if I really needed the pain medication prescription, my wife contacted them about last Wednesday! Fortunately she had spoken to a clinician who took action, at that time, rather than passing it into an already choked up list of things to be done, at some time, by whoever gets around to it!