West Suffolk Hospital

West Suffolk Hospital Orthopaedic Department

west_suffolk_hospital_0

  • 430 beds
  • Population of around 275,000
  • The West Suffolk is a district general hospital situated in Bury St Edmunds.

We are:

  • 13 consultants and one associate specialist
  • 8 Lower limb arthroplasty
  • 3 foot and ankle
  • 3 upper limb surgeons.
  • Spines are covered by Ipswich.

Whilst at the West Suffolk Hospital there are lots of opportunity to progress both clinically and academically.  You will be supported and given a mix of opportunities in theatres and clinics. As a group, we will support and prepare you for the FRCS and your life in orthopaedics.

Key Contacts

Address: Hardwick lane, Bury St Edmunds, IP33 2QZ.        Tel: 01284 713000

 Educational Supervisor: Miss Lora Young

Rota Co-ordinator: is Mr Konrad Wronka

Rota secretaries- Sheenagh Bugg sheenagh.bugg@wsh.nhs.uk//Bev London Bev.London@wsh.nhs.uk

Consultants and pairings

Rota

  • 9 registrars
  • 5 regional trainees
  • 3 trainees on Fellowship (Belgium/ Sri Lanka)

2x consultant pairings as clinical supervisors per 6month block.

On calls

Consultants on call blocks Monday 8am-Tursday 5pm and Thursday 5pm- Monday 8am. During on call, elective operations for that consultant surgeon are cancelled  but clinics will continue. Registrars work 24 hours on-call with on call accommodation provided and compensatory rest day the following day. There will be cross covering of clinics to account for leave.

The team

  • Foundation/ GP trainees on 4/12 rotations wards & on call
  • consultant orthogeriatrician
  • 2 trauma nurse practioners
  • 1 advance care practioner
  • surgical nurse practioners
  • fracture clinic physiotherapists
  • Plaster team
  • Children nurses
  • Fracture clinic nurses.    … And many, many more

IT

Rota on Medirota (app) – records whole department rota.

Bleeps through Medicbleep (app)

Electronic patient notes (E-care)

 

Nurse Specialists

7 nurse specialists help in both clinics and theatres. They will be support in clinic and theatres.

  • Donna Taylor – Upper limb
  • Sue Lafflin – Arthroplasty (Mr Schenk and Mr Nicolai)
  • Sara Davey – Hip (Mr Parsons, Mr Shakokani and Mr Al-Hadithi)
  • Sarah Reader – Hip and Knee (Mr Dunn and Mr Shakokani)
  • Gemma Salt – Foot and ankle (Mr Vaughn) Hip (Mr Atrey)
  • David Higgins – Foot and ankle

 

Leave

Annual leave can generally be taken when suits the individual. It is however important to ensure not too many SPR’s are off at any one time. (Usually 2 but exceptions can be made if it is possible to cover all clinical work).

Leave should be booked through contacting Bev London or Sheenagh Bugg. It is recommended you email both and try to catch them in person (Ortho Offices).  As the Medirota is planned 6 weeks in advance it is necessary to give 6weeks and ensure commitments are covered.

 

Clinic

During COVID-19 Clinics are currently arranged as Super clinics per subspeciality of the same day each week. These will be a mix of elective planned follow up triage clinics and fracture clinics.

The previous system was based upon 2 clinics per session (morning/afternoon) to include a mix of elective and orthopaedic patients specifically for that consultant. These clinics will always be run by 2- either consultant and registrar or two registrars depending on rota commitments and leave.  You will need to cross cover clinics to accommodate leave, post night oncall etc, which will be scheduled on Medirota.

 

Virtual Fracture Clinic

 This is a patient free clinic that runs every weekday starting at 7.30 and will consist of named consultant, secretary and fracture clinic team member. Both A&E and GPs refer to this clinic for patient referrals. 

 

On call at Night

 The on call’s are a 24hr non-resident shift. The registrar should remain on site till 10pm and then transfer the bleep to switchboard on medic rota.

As the on calls are non-resident, an on-call room is available off site as you will be expected to available to come into hospital if needed within 20 minutes.  The key to this room is on a lanyard and should be left in the registrar office.

There is one SHO overnight covering orthopaedics, general surgery and urology. The following day is given off as a rest day. The rota is a rolling rota and therefore is a fair as possible in terms of cover for weekends and bank holidays.

Prior to 10pm, the registrar is the first on call. After 10pm all GP and A&E referrals will go to the night surgical SHO. Any new patients admitted overnight will need to be seen by the night registrar prior to the trauma meeting.

 

Swaps

As there will be rest days off during the week following on call some regular commitments may be missed from time to time however due to the rolling nature of the rota the same things should not be missed all the time. You are welcome to swap these on calls to balance your commitments and to ensure the rota is updated please flag up any swaps to both Bev and Sheenagh and these can be accommodated on the rota.  Please email all swaps including the swapping registrar to Sheenagh and Bev. If you wish to take leave when you are, meant to be on call it is your responsibility to swap out of these on call shifts. If you need to take your leave for longer periods for example honey moons, long travel please do give as much notice as your case and discuss this request with rota team.

 

Trauma Meeting 

Trauma meetings take place at 8am every morning in the discussion room on the F3/F4 corridor. These should be attended by everyone whenever possible.

All patients seen during the on call, awaiting surgery, requiring results follow up or immediately post op or have any concerns that need to be shared with the juniors/ consultant team are included. These patients are added to this Trauma list via e-Care.

 

Trauma Booking

The SpR should have marked and consented the patient. They will need to book the patient for theatre by E-Care as a ‘TRA’ trauma case or ‘EMER’ emergency case. These should also be written down on a red clipboard for the relevant day, held by theatre teams in the theatre coffee room.

Each patient needs A VTE assessment and appropriate VTE prescribed along with a EPARS resuscitation decision and discussion. Please also call the family and include them in DNAR discussions.

 

Booking Paperwork 

  • Yellow consent form
  • Pink WHO checklist form

Both must be done along with EPARS and VTE for patient to be transferred to theatre for surgery.

Theatres 

 Theatre 3 – Emergency theatre shared with all surgical specialties and runs 24/7.

Theatre 7- Elective orthopaedics – Mon-Fri 9am-5.30pm

Theatre 8 – Trauma theatre- Every weekday 1.30-5.30pm; Weekends varied schedule.

Theatre 9- Elective Orthopaedics Mon-Fri 9am-5.30pm

Day surgery Unit (DSU) – elective/ planned trauma facility; varied sessions.

 

Wards

F1 ‘Rainbow ward’ – Paediatrics

F3- trauma and Spine

F4- Elective (need MRSA -ve swab)

F6/7- general surgical/ surgical outliers wards.

 

Comments 

WSH is a wonderful place for training and working. You have won the lottery with your placement! Enjoy your time here.