NHS Patient Choice gives university student access
to hip surgery
Imran Sadiq, a 26 year
old University student from Manchester was recently an NHS patient
at North Downs Hospital.
Imran, a talented badminton player from an early age, had
represented Scotland in the under 21’s badminton team.
However, as a youth he experienced hip pain and a clicking in
his hip joints, predominantly in his right hip but also, to a
lesser degree, in his left. As a teenager his GP told him this was
just ‘growing pains’ but it didn’t improve and eventually he had to
give up playing badminton.
By now the pain, although sporadic, could be so bad on some days
that Imran would be bed bound, whilst on others he would be
relatively well. Eventually, an orthopaedic surgeon diagnosed the
problem but wanted to perform an open surgery hip dislocation.
Imran decided to research his condition and using the internet he
found Paul Jairaj, Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon at North Downs
Hospital.
Mr Jairaj is one of a handful of orthopaedic surgeons in the UK
who performs hip arthroscopies and could carry out the procedure on
Imran with keyhole surgery. Mr Jairaj initially performed a hip
pain block which ascertained that the pain was caused by a hip
condition and not referred pain from the back or elsewhere. Once
this was confirmed Imran came into North Downs Hospital for a hip
arthroscopy at the beginning of June. He was able to be referred to
North Downs Hospital on the NHS Choose & Book system by his GP
in Manchester; the procedure only required an overnight stay.
Imran says ‘After many, many years of pain and disability I feel
like my hip joint is already 80% back to normal. I am so happy with
the results I intend to have my left hip done but I need to wait
until after January, when I have some important exams’. The benefit
of the NHS Patient Choice system is you can choose which hospital
you wish to have your surgery performed and you are not just
limited to your local area.