What does the process of getting to surgery involve?
Professor Munjed Al Muderis and his team take significant consideration and a great deal of planning before proceeding to surgery. Although the process might appear straightforward and fast, there is a considerable amount of work behind the scenes in collaboration with the anesthetist and the hospital staff in order to give you the best outcome in minimal time.
An outline of the process:
Firstly, you will need a referral from your local General Practitioner (GP) or the doctor in the emergency department if you have had an accident. We not legally allowed to review you unless you have a proper referral letter.
Once you make an appointment our staff in the clinic will gather all the available medical information regarding your medical condition and create a file with your unique identifying number. In certain cases we will communicate with the doctor who referred you before you see us in our clinic. However, your information will be kept confidential.
During your review in the clinic, your medical history will be discussed and thorough examinations, tests and scans will be taken. These will then be discussed with you and we will advise what we believe would be the best course of action. It is our practice that we often dictate a letter to your local GP and/or any other referring doctor while you are in the room so you can hear the information again. We believe often the information you receive is too much to be absorbed the first time. We have learnt from previous experience that this process also gives you more time to think of any other questions you want to ask.
Once the consultation is finished you will either be advised to make another appointment for further follow-up (if needed) or if surgery is to be planned then one of our staff members will meet you in their office to discuss further details and provide you with further information.
After you leave we will communicate with your local medical officer via mail or phone to discuss your case and if surgery is planned, we will contact the appropriate hospital for you to make the booking arrangements. We will also contact the most suitable anesthetist for your condition and discuss your case with them to get further advice. We will then relay to you or your local GP if there are any further recommendations.
If surgery is planned we will ask you to make another appointment at the clinic in order to answer any further questions you may have, discuss the operation in more detail and for you to sign any necessary consent forms. If you are unable to attend the clinic a phone conversation may be sufficient.
Please make sure you keep all your imaging films and x-rays and bring them with you to the hospital on the day of surgery.
