13 July 2023

Heatherwood Hospital has had a record-breaking Arthroplasty Super Week with an impressive 101 joint operations performed by the orthopaedic surgical teams.

During the six-day period, the number of hip and knee replacement procedures was almost three times higher than during an average week and 54% of patients were safely discharged to go home within 24 hours of surgery.

This is the third Arthroplasty Super Week held since Heatherwood opened last March. The initiative involves different teams coming together to work as efficiently as possible, from the porters, pharmacists and the pre-assessment nurses to the bookings team, consultants and therapists.

The aim is to test how many patients can be operated on and to trial different ways of working to help tackle the waiting list backlog for orthopaedic surgery.

During the week, three of the six theatres were used solely for joint surgery, increasing the number of replacement procedures from an average of 30-35 a week to 101 – a figure only achieved by a handful of elective hubs across the country.

Rakesh Kucheria, orthopaedic surgeon and Heatherwood efficiency lead, said: “Everyone came together and worked extremely hard to achieve the biggest number of joints we have ever performed in a single week.

"What is even more impressive is many of these weren’t straightforward cases - around 30% were higher risk patients as we worked methodically through the waiting list.

“Arthroplasty Super Week is about pushing productivity to its maximum and we have clearly demonstrated what could be achieved in the future in an efficiently-designed elective facility.”

Arthroplasty Super Week ran from Monday 26 June to Saturday 1 July. The results and new ways of working will set a benchmark for the comings months, with another ‘Super Week’ already being planned for later this year.