A patient education programme pioneered at Shepton Mallet NHS Treatment Centre empowers hip and knee replacement patients to speed their own recovery.

Patients meet the entire treatment team – including the surgeon, anaesthetist, triage nurse and physiotherapist – at their outpatient appointments. This will be the first of many opportunities they have to ask questions.

In pre-treatment classes, for example, hip and knee replacement patients hear about pain management from a lead nurse and learn from a physiotherapist the exercises they will need to maximise recovery. A subsequent open session allows one-to-one consultations on patient-specific concerns.

Patients often want information on basic issues such as the best way to get in and out of a car, or upstairs, after the operation. At UKSH we provide focused, short succinct information, tailored to be specific to the patient’s needs.