Orthopaedics is the branch of medicine which focuses on treating the musculoskeletal system. This includes muscles, bones, joints, ligaments, and tendons.
The Trauma and Orthopaedic service is based across a number of sites, Royal Blackburn Teaching Hospital, Burnley General Teaching Hospital and Rossendale General Hospital. It provides acute care at Royal Blackburn Teaching Hospital and most of the elective care at Burnley General Teaching Hospital both delivered by highly skilled specialists. In addition, we provide outpatients services at Accrington Victoria Community Hospital, Clitheroe Community Hospital, and Pendle Community Hospital.
We are one of the largest departments in the Northwest. We have a large clinical team consisting of consultant orthopaedic surgeons, consultants specialised in care of the elderly, specialist trainees, middle grade doctors, advanced clinical practitioners, specialist nurses, junior doctors trauma practitioners and nurses.
The Trauma and Orthopaedic department are actively engaged in research and teaching for elective and trauma surgery. Along with trauma care, we are subspecialities in lower limb, upper limb, foot and ankle and children’s orthopaedics.
Our facilities
At Royal Blackburn Teaching Hospital we have two dedicated inpatient wards for acute trauma, B22 and B24 each 23 bedded.
B22 is our dedicated hip fracture ward where we have Orthopaedic Geriatrician input who assess and manage the general medical conditions of our Orthopaedic patients.
B24 is our dedicated trauma ward.
We offer a specialised Orthopaedic training programme, fully supported by our own trauma team.
As a unit we are strong advocates of John's Campaign. John’s Campaign is a national campaign which recognises the important role of family members who care for people living with dementia and people with complex needs, including learning disabilities and or autism.
Our Elective Centre is at Burnley General Teaching Hospital and is used for our day-case patients.
Ward 15 is for Elective (planned) surgical patients and is a 24 bedded unit. They have their own dedicated rehab team. It is also used for step down rehab patients who require further rehab or an in patient stay.
Emergency care is provided at the Royal Blackburn Teaching Hospital where we have 2 trauma theatres running 7 days a week.
We work closely with our tertiary centres. Wrightington Hospital for pelvis surgery, Salford and Liverpool for limb reconstruction, Preston for plastic and spinal surgery and Alderhey for Paediatrics and Manchester Children's Hospital.
We have five clean air orthopaedic theatres at Burnley General Teaching Hospital and two at Royal Blackburn Teaching hospital.
Part of the preoperative process for our hip and knee replacement patients we provide our Hip and Knee School. Following the launch of the hip and knee school it was shortlisted for a Nursing times award in the Surgical Nursing category.
Our services
We have excellent clinical outcomes and short waiting times, providing orthopaedic services that can be broken into the following subspecialties interests:
- Foot and ankle surgery
- Hip surgery
- Knee surgery
- Shoulder and elbow surgery
- Wrist and hand surgery
- Children (paediatric) surgery
- Trauma Surgery
- Sports injuries
- Revision surgery
We provide hip fracture care for over 450 patients per year which makes us one of the busiest hospitals in North West. We have consistently provided best practice in this field and achieved one of the highest percentages compare to national average as well as North West average.
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