24 August 2007
Dorset Patient Commends Rapid Surgery Centre To Visiting Health Minister
Health Minister Ben Bradshaw MP was in Somerset on Friday (24th August) visiting the Somerset’s first independent sector surgery centre.
Mr Maurice Rymill, from Gillingham in Dorset (left) talks with Health Minister, Ben Bradshaw MP (centre) and Aminah Ali, Lead Nurse at Shepton Mallet's NHS Treatment Centre, during a visit to the region. Mr Rymill had been referred to the hospital for a knee replacement. The minister spent over an hour visiting the Shepton Mallet NHS Treatment Centre and a stroke unit at the adjacent community hospital, taking times to speak to both patients and staff. Opened in July 2005, the Treatment Centre is a 34 bed surgery facility offering hip, knee, cataract replacement as well as general surgical procedures, such as hernia repair and varicose vein surgery. The centre has already treated almost 20,000 patients to date from Dorset and Somerset. Waiting times at the centre are well within 12 weeks (from GP referral to completion of surgery) with many patients enjoying waits as short as just nine weeks. As a consequence a growing number of patients are choosing to have their treatment at this popular facility. Health Minister Ben Bradshaw was introduced to Mr Maurice Rymill, from Gillingham in Dorset. Mr Rymill had been referred to the hospital for a knee replacement. “My doctor recommended I come here. In the past I would probably have gone to Salisbury Hospital, but when I heard that I could be treated in just a few weeks I said yes,” said Mr Rymill. “I have been very pleased with the care and treatment. I opted to have my operation under just a local anaesthetic. It was an unusual experience to think you are awake whilst surgery’s taking place, but everything went fine and I have been delighted with the results.” Mr Bradshaw expressed his satisfaction that so many patients from Dorset were experiencing shorter waiting times for routine treatment, and that the Shepton Mallet NHS Treatment Centre was able to extend choice to patients as well as delivering some of the shortest waiting times in the region. The Minister then walked just two hundred yards from the Treatment Centre, to the adjacent Shepton Mallet Community Hospital, where he met staff and patients referred to the hospital’s Stroke Rehabilitation Unit.