Trauma

Plymouth Plastic Surgery receives around 140 referrals a week for people who have sustained injuries that we need to treat. The majority are hand and forearm injuries but include many burns, leg injuries and some head and neck injuries too. We get referrals from our own Emergency Department and from the Cumberland Centre in Plymouth city centre but also from all the surrounding hospitals (Royal Cornwall Hospital, Royal Devon and Exeter, Torbay) and minor injury units as well. We assess them in our newly designated trauma clinic on level 4 and treat and discharge or schedule for surgery on daily theatre sessions for trauma. We treat hand fractures as well as lots of skin, tendon and nerve injuries. We aim to treat most injuries with wounds within 24 hours and fractures without a skin wound within 72 hours.

The plastic surgery service is a key part of the Peninsular Trauma Centre service at Derriford. Along with neurosurgery and cardiothoracic surgery, we help to provide the specialist reconstructive surgery that complex trauma patients need to recover.

The team comprises doctors of all grades, senior nurses who assess and treat patients, hand therapists who provide essential rehabilitation for hand injuries and burns, and administrative staff. We cover a large area of the south west peninsula for some injuries. People want to get back to their home hospital and health services for rehabilitation after injuries, but the specialist therapy and wound care required is sometimes only available at Derriford hospital.

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