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Following a £2 million investment, patients are now able to access Benenden Hospital’s new orthopaedic service.
The service is for joint surgery – mainly hip and knee replacements – and patients are treated in the new Garland Suite, staying in single occupancy rooms with en-suite wet rooms, flat screen TVs and free national and local telephone calls.
Pre-surgery consultations are organised for Saturdays to fit in with patients’ work and home life, with surgery taking place on Fridays. Most patients stay three nights and there is a reasonably priced on-site hotel for family and friends.
The service is open to private patients, NHS patients under GP’s Choose and Book scheme and, at a reduced rate, to members of the Benenden Healthcare Society, for whom the hospital was originally built and still serves.
“We have tailored our new service to suit patients’ busy lives and by arranging consultations and surgery at the weekend hope that it will minimize any inconvenience,” said the hospital’s modern matron Dee Farris.
“Once scheduled for surgery, patients attend a pre-surgery assessment and education programme with the nursing staff, anesthetist, pharmacist and physiotherapist. They will then return for their surgery on a previously agreed Friday afternoon and most are discharged early on Monday morning.”
Five patients have been treated so far and, says Mrs Farris, the feedback has been extremely positive.
Hospital Director Jane Abbott would like to see the service expand. “We made a substantial investment in upgrading one of the theatres and converting a ward into a suite of 13 state of the art private rooms for patients,” she said. “We are starting our new service with joint surgery but our long-term plans are to introduce further orthopaedic procedures as well as new services.
“By carrying out consultations and procedures at the weekend we aim to fit in with our patients’ busy lives and our on-site accommodation for family and friends makes visiting easy.”
Benenden Hospital is set in the countryside between Cranbrook and Tenterden. The hospital recently won the award as top healthcare employer in the UK in the Health Service Journal and Nursing Times’ prestigious Healthcare 100 list. This was the third year running that the Hospital has won this award for the way it cares for its staff.
The hospital was founded in 1907 as a TB sanatorium for postal workers but, more than a century later, it provides healthcare for Benenden Healthcare Society members, private patients and NHS patients who can elect to have treatment there through the NHS GPs’ Choose and Book scheme.
The hospital prides itself on providing high quality diagnostic, surgical and medical services. Great emphasis is placed on providing comfortable, clean and infection-free accommodation and a range of clinical services, which have led to an impressive array of industry awards.
Benenden Healthcare Society is a not for profit organisation which works for the benefit of its members, offering them medical care at 12 hospitals, including Benenden Hospital in Kent. The Hospital had no cases at all of MRSA infection during the last monitored period, 2006 to 2008.
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