Stoke Mandeville Hospital team complete record-breaking pain relief shift

Buckinghamshire’s NHS Trust has confirmed that the Day Surgery Unit at Stoke Mandeville Hospital completed its first ever High Intensity Theatres (HIT) list.

During the programme, the team completed 33 pain procedures on one single day – 60% more than the usual 20. This programme was set up so that staff at the hospital could support patients dealing with debilitating pain.

It has been revealed that this was the first time that a team at Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust has undertaken a HIT list programme. Two surgeons, Dr Tauheed Shaikh and Dr Samaresh Das, led teams in two operating theatres focused entirely on patients requiring pain procedures.

A spokesperson for the trust revealed that the procedures on the day included nerve-route blocks and trigger point injections, where local anaesthetic and steroid is given to relieve pain and reduce inflammation. These help patients who suffer with debilitating pain from a variety of conditions, sometimes to the point of not being able to work or go about their day as they normally would.

Trust chief executive Neil Macdonald said: “This has been a fantastic achievement by our day surgery unit. They achieved an astounding increase in the number of pain procedures they completed in just one eight-hour period, which proves just how capable and committed they are to making a difference to our patients here in Buckinghamshire.”

Buckinghamshire NHS Trust is looking to run HIT programmes in other departments in the coming months.