Hospital Stay and Aftercare
Our Aims for your Stay
We aim to carry out our procedures with the highest standards of safety for our patients. We provide care only at hospitals which provide full surgical and resuscitation facilities. All of our associated hospitals provide twenty-four hour nursing care with experience staff, and are fully registered with the Healthcare Commission. They all provide individual patient rooms with en-suite facilities, television sets and separate telephone lines.
Our Anaesthetic Staff
Our anaesthetic staff are all practicing NHS Consultant Anaesthetists with a wealth of experience in dealing with patients with difficult anaesthetic problems. They are available to provide care not just during the procedure but also in the post-operative period.
On Arrival
Your procedure will typically begin with arrival in hospital approximately one to two hours before your planned procedure. You will be clerked in and admitted by nursing staff who will record your details and go through a final checklist of items pertaining to your medical history, including allergies and medications. You will be given a wrist or ankle identification tag, and thrombo-embolic deterrent stockings which help prevent deep clots in the legs. You will also be provided with a meal menu for the duration of your stay.
You will have been given detailed instructions prior to your admission. Following this, you will change into hospital clothing, and will be assessed by your anaesthetist who may prescribe premedications. Mr. Yap will see you before your operation for final questions, marking and signing of the consent form for the procedure.
After Your Operation
Your recovery time and discharge from hospital will depend on your operation, whether or not you had a general anaesthetic, and on your own physical condition. Most patients have minimal discomfort or nausea, but may feel drowsy on initial recovery. Relatives are usually allowed to visit at specified times set by the individual hospitals. You will usually be able to carry out a conversation by about two to three hours after a general anaesthetic. You will have dressings related to your procedure (this will be detailed in separate information sheets), and possibly drains (plastic tubes in the surgical wound sites) which help remove excess tissue fluid and blood from beneath the wounds. During your stay you will receive regular nursing checks and measurements, and Mr. Yap will assess your progress daily.
Discharge and After-care
Upon discharge, you will received detailed post-operative instructions from Mr. Yap and his team. A follow-up appointment will be arranged for approximately a week after your surgery (or earlier if applicable). In the event of problems or concerns, you can either contact the hospital ward, or contact Mr. Yap?s team directly, details of which will be provided to you.
We will undertake for Mr. Yap or another Consultant Plastic Surgeon to be present throughout all aspects of your care, and it is our commitment to you to ensure that you are supported throughout your surgical journey.
Outpatient Follow Up
It is perhaps useful to consider surgery as the first step in your transformation, which needs to be consolidated by a period of healing, during which time further complications may occur. A regimen of staged follow-up visits are therefore necessary for monitoring in most cases and these will have been discussed with you in your discussions pre- and post-operatively.
Our aim is to achieve positive results for you with the minimum of side effects or complications, and we hope that your surgical stay with us will be a pleasant and satisfying one.