Establishing a plastic surgery trauma clinic

Trauma is an increasing burden on resources both in terms of personnel, operating time and bed occupancy. We describe the introduction of a plastic surgery trauma clinic. This clinic was established in an effort to streamline the increasing number of trauma referrals. Under the previous system inappropriate admissions were occurring using up a valuable resource. This audit was performed to see if the "see and treat" plastic surgery trauma clinic has made an impact on the service offered and provided by our unit. One of the aims in establishing this clinic was to ensure a more efficient bed occupancy rates. The "see and treat" aspect of this clinic has been very effective with regard to this as 21% of patients were treated in the minor operations area within the clinic. A further 26% of patients assessed in the clinic did not require admission or a surgical procedure. Prior to the establishment of this clinic both these groups of patients would have been admitted to the hospital and perhaps because of the delay to admission would have been managed in their own hospitals. From this audit we have proven that establishing a trauma clinic has enabled us to triage these patients in an effective manner, within a satisfactory time period and if appropriate, treat them at the time of review in the adjacent theatre.