Trauma and Orthopaedic Services at Poole Hospital
The trauma orthopaedic team includes:
Clinical director: Responsible for clinical leadership and clinical service development. The clinical director leads a team of trauma orthopaedic consultant surgeons, middle grade doctors and junior doctors to provide 24-hour medical care.
Directorate manager: Responsible for the management of the service, working closely with the clinical director and matron to achieve a high standard of patient care.
Matron: Responsible for professional nursing leadership and service development on the inpatient trauma wards.
Trauma Assessment and Co-ordination Team (TACT): A team of experienced nurse practitioners and clinical nurse specialists responsible for the co-ordination of the patient pathway to surgery.
Senior clinical nurse for trauma and education: Service development, co-ordination of care for patients admitted with spinal injuries and provision of expert nursing care.
Therapy team leader: Responsible for leading and co-ordinating inpatient rehabilitation by the trauma therapies team, including physiotherapists and occupational therapists.
Patients may be asked to attend one of many weekly fracture clinics as a result of a visit to Poole Hospital or the Royal Bournemouth Hospital Emergency Department, following a referral by their GP or following discharge after inpatient/day case surgery or treatment. Patients may be seen by the consultant or by a member of their team of doctors and physiotherapists.
During their visit patients may have to have an x-ray and/or be treated in the plaster room by one of our experienced technicians.
The ten trauma orthopaedic consultant surgeons providing the service at Poole Hospital are also part of the orthopaedic team at the Royal Bournemouth Hospital. They hold elective outpatient clinics here for patients requiring planned surgery, for example, a hip or knee replacement.
Patients may be referred by their GP for a consultation at Poole Hospital but their subsequent operation will be undertaken at Royal Bournemouth Hospital.
GP’s may refer children to our paediatric orthopaedic elective service. The service is led by a consultant surgeon who is part of the Southampton University Hospitals Trust paediatric orthopaedic team.
The consultant holds outpatient clinics in Poole Hospital on a weekly basis and regularly visits Langside School and Victoria Education Centre & Sports College.
Children who require surgery will be admitted as a day case patient or as an inpatient on the children’s unit at Poole. Some children may be referred for treatment or surgery at Southampton.
The Virtual Fracture Clinic is now running in Poole Hospital! We will keep you updated with progress via this page.
For more information on these changes, and what this may mean for you, please see below.
What is the Virtual Fracture Clinic?
Our fracture clinics have been redesigned to offer patients a safe and effective process in assessing their injury.
Until recently, all fractures/breaks were seen in our Fracture Clinic a few days after the injury. Patients with straightforward and predictable breaks waited in our busy fracture clinic, often taking time off work/school, without any subsequent change in their treatment. However, occasionally the injury is more significant and requires further examination and possible surgery. It is therefore useful for all patients’ x-rays and notes to be reviewed by a Consultant.
Coming to a traditional fracture clinic in the first few days is unnecessary in many cases and often difficult due to pain and immobility. It can be apparent at the time of the first fracture clinic appointment that an early opinion of a specialist is required. This can now be provided by at our Virtual Fracture Clinic.
Now to ensure patients are accurately diagnosed and treated in the appropriate clinic, patients are first referred to our Virtual Fracture Clinic. Each referral is reviewed by one of our consultants to determine the appropriate management and clinic for the patient to attend. This ensures that patients are not delayed in clinic and do not have to be re-referred to other departments or consultants, which can hold up their treatment and hinder recovery.
Assessment in the Virtual Fracture Clinic
After being referred to the Virtual Fracture Clinic, your case will be reviewed remotely by the Orthopaedic team within 24-72 hours of your attendance at the Emergency Department(Prior to leaving the emergency department, please make sure the hospital has an up to date telephone number and email address for you).
You will not need to attend hospital for the virtual assessment to take place.
Following the assessment, a trained, experienced physiotherapist will contact you by telephone to discuss your individual management plan. Following the phone call, you may be discharged by phone or if you require further specialist help you will be referred to the most appropriate clinic to meet your needs.
Please ensure your treating clinician has your up-to-date telephone number and email address, and that you are able to receive a call between 8.30am – 4.30pm Monday-Friday (If you are not available on the telephone, a message will be left if you have this facility)
All patients and their GP’s will receive a letter outlining the assessment and the outcome.
What happens next?
Patient aftercare is dependent on the nature of the injury. Some patients will be suitable to be managed in the community setting with support from their GP or local services. Some will require hospital visits and some will be discharged after a telephone consultation with the virtual fracture clinic team and provision of basic self-management advice.
More information on specific aftercare advice can be found in the patient advice sheets on the right hand side of this page.
Please refer to the Virtual Fracture Clinic patient leaflet for a printable version of this information
