First major trauma centre to launch specialist clinic
St George’s has become the first major trauma centre in the UK to launch a fully multidisciplinary major trauma clinic for our patients.
The consultant-led clinic, which launched earlier this month, sees adult patients with multiple trauma injuries who have been discharged, and require follow up outpatient appointments within a number of specialties.
The idea of the clinic is to improve patient experience by enabling patients to see all the specialists relevant to their care within one clinical appointment to minimise the number of times they need to come to hospital, and streamline their recovery in a well-led and coordinated way.
The clinic reviews patients and their rehabilitation needs including progression of weight bearing, assessing bone healing as well as their psychological needs. It also allows for referrals into complex inpatient musculoskeletal rehabilitation as needed.
The team includes a consultant and specialist registrar, specialist nurse for major trauma, major trauma consultant physiotherapist, clinical psychologist and specialist rehabilitation consultants.
Stephen Friend, Major Trauma Consultant Physiotherapist, said: “This is an excellent development in our major trauma service and importantly it will improve the patient pathway by using a holistic approach. We now have the ability to improve access to the multidisciplinary team and streamline our rehabilitation referrals.”
Dr Anthony Hudson, Clinical Director for Major Trauma and Consultant in Emergency Medicine, said: “This initiative benefits our most complex trauma patients and underlines our commitment to excellent rehabilitation.”