A focused effort to see and treat patients with a hernia saw around 200 in just one day, with those needing surgery treated just weeks later. A hernia is when an internal organ is pushed through a weakness in the muscle or surrounding tissue wall.

#ImpactHernia started in May with a one-stop-clinic combining initial outpatient appointments and surgical pre-assessments for the first time. This saw 200 patients and allowed us to speed up the process for those who did need an operation, prepping them for surgery in just a few weeks.

From 27 June we ran an intense week of surgery to treat those who needed it – carrying out around 50 operations, with some more complex hernia surgeries taking place before and after, making 65 operations in total.

Veeru Shatkar, General Surgery Lead, said: “We don’t usually do pre-assessment on the same day as an initial appointment in clinic. This was a trial and worked really well.

“We had ten consultants at the one-stop clinic which helped us see so many patients. Some were discharged and those who needed surgery were assessed there and then with most given a date to return for their surgery. We carried out just under 50 hernia operations in one focused week, as well as some more complicated hernia cases just before and after that.

“It was a significant task to bring this together and took a massive effort from the team including admin, pre-assessment, admissions, theatre team, nurses, surgeons, anaesthetists, and managers.”

This has made a huge dent in our waiting list and will allow us to focus on those hernia patients needing more complex procedures.

It’s one of many projects our teams have run to help reduce our waiting lists, read more.