INTRODUCTIONBy December 2008, 90% of referrals requiring hospital admission will need to be seen and treated within the 18-week patient pathway. Previously, patients within our trust with suspected carpal tunnel syndrome had to wait 3 months to see a specialist in clinic and, once assessed, would have to wait up to a further 6 months for an open carpal tunnel decompression under local anaesthetic (OCTD/LA). We set up a one-stop clinic, where patients would have their out-patient consultation and surgery on the same day. We evaluated the clinic in order to assess whether it led to reduced waiting times whilst maintaining good clinical outcome and patient satisfaction.
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