Telephone: 01604 523800
Trauma and orthopaedics have sixteen consultants specialising in all areas of the body, including hip, knee, foot, ankle, shoulder, elbow, hand, and wrist (the only exception being spinal services).
Patients are either seen as emergencies, through accident & emergency, or they are seen in a fracture or orthopaedic clinic. All operations are carried out in our dedicated operating suite, Manfield theatres, which has four fully-equipped laminar flow theatres (laminar flow is a special air flow used to reduce the risk of infection).
The department has a very low rate of MRSA infection and all patients coming through the department are routinely screened for MRSA (swabs taken from nose and groin), and given preventative creams and washes to help clear the body of these bacteria, which many people carry without knowledge.
Wards
Compton ward - for patients who have a planned (elective) surgery.
Collingtree ward
Manfield day surgery unit (MDSU) - day case surgery.
Clinics
All patients are seen in the fracture and orthopaedic clinic, located in Area D.
Click here for the hospital map
The department also runs a virtual fracture clinic each weekday, where patients who are referred with acute injuries and fractures from the emergency department are seen virtually (their xrays are reviewed together with the information regarding the mechanism of injury) and decisions made as to when would be most timely for each patient to be seen back in the fracture clinic.
About the team
Directorate Manager – Phillip Homer
Clinical Director – Mr Gary Mundy (Orthopaedic Consultant)
Modern Matron - Stacey Cheney (Matron)
Oupatient Clinic Sister – Debs Norman
Administration Manager - Outpatients – Clare McRobbie
Administration Manager – Inpatients – Helen Kerry & Kate Robinson
Consultants:
Northampton General Hospital does not specically provide a Spinal Surgical service; however, a visiting surgeon, Mr Dhiram, from University of Leicester Hopsitals underakes a satellite clinic for patients from Northamptonshire who are referred to Leicester by their General Practitioner.
Our surgical care practitioners are:
- Mr John Chadwick (Foot & Ankle)
- Mr Shyju Parakambalath (Hip & Knee)
- Ms Bill Robertson-Smith (Hip & Knee)
- Mr Howard Tanner (Hip & Knee)
- Miss Natiya Benedict (Trainee)
The team also includes several:
ST (Specialty Training) doctors including Specialist Registrars from the East Midlands (Leicester) training rotation
CT (Core Training) doctors
FY2 (Final Year) doctors
From time to time the Department has Medical Students from the University of Leicester rotating through; you will always be given the option as to whether you wish such students to join your consultation.
Trauma coordinators
Denise Sweeney, Sonya Soji and Colette Cronin rotate the responsibility for arranging trauma admissions for those patients who require surgery for their injury or fracture, but who do not require to be in hospital while waiting for their operation; this includes patients who have attended a clinic appointment where surgery has been mutually decided upon, and those patients who have attended the Emergency Department with an injury requiring surgery but that did not specifically require admission on that day.
The doctor who sees you will pass your details on to one of the Trauma Co-ordinators, and they will in turn liaise directly with you regarding details of your planned admission.
The trauma coordinators can be reached through the hospital switchboard on Bleep 6026 between 07.30 and 15.30 monday to Friday and on Sunday mornings too.
Trauma operating
Treating fractures is a large part of the department's work.
Every morning the on-call consultant together with the trauma co-ordinator and the anaesthetist responsible for the operating list meet to discuss the cases for the day, and assess their priorities.
Whilst no-one likes having to wait for their operation, the number, type and complexity of fractures waiting is unpredictable, so this means sometimes, despite a scheduled trauma list each day of the week, some patients may have to wait for their operation. We will always do our very best to communicate with you should your surgery be postponed.
Hip Fractures
One of the most common injuries treated is a broken hip (fractured neck of femur). For this type of fracture there is evidence to demonstrate that prompt surgery significantly improves patients' lives, through a reduction in the length of hospital stay, helping patients recover their mobility faster and reducing the number of follow-up procedures. Our objectives, therefore, are to operate on such fractures within 36 hours of their admission to hospital.
Key performance indicators regarding assessment, surgery and outcomes for hip fractures are collated in the National Hip Fracture Database (NHFD). The NHFD is a national clinical audit undertaken by the Royal College of Physicians on behalf of the NHS. They collect data on all aspects of the care given to hip fracture patients in England, Wales and Northern Ireland aged sixty and over. This data is fed back to hospitals in several ways, including annual reports and online run charts, to allow hospitals to track their performance and to facilitate quality improvements.
NHFD Dashboard report for Northampton General Hospital (NTH) 2023
National Joint Register
The Department maintains its own internal database of admissions and referrals, but in addition data is captured at a national level across all hospitals in the NHS and private sectors. One of the largest such databases is The National Joint Registry.
Hip, knee, ankle, elbow, and shoulder joint replacements are common and highly successful operations that bring many patients relief from pain and improved mobility.
Thousands of these joint replacement operations take place in the UK every year. The National Joint Registry (NJR) was set up by the Department of Health and Welsh Government in 2002 to collect information on joint replacement operations and to monitor the performance of implants, hospitals, and surgeons.
The NJR started collecting data in April 2003 and submission for NHS organisations has been mandatory since April 2011. The registry now holds over 2.5 million records, making it the largest register of its kind in the world.
Hip and knee replacements have been collected since 2003, ankle joint replacements since 2010 and elbow and shoulder joint replacements since April 2012. Submission for NHS organisations has been mandatory since April 2011, with the independent sector adhering to mandatory requirements since 2003.
In England and Wales there are approximately 160,000 total hip and knee replacement procedures performed each year. The same number of hip and knee joints are replaced. Ankle replacement is a much less common procedure, but the practice is growing rapidly.
For each consultant surgeon listed, you will find information about their practice including how many hips, knee, ankle, elbow, or shoulder procedures they have carried out over the past 3 years. For hip and knee consultant surgeons, there is also information about mortality in the first 90-days after surgery and all the results analysed were within the expected range.
Other information
You can find out more about the Trauma and Orthopaedics Directorate by clicking on the appropriate links in the left hand menu or use the links below: