This department looks after patients who have been diagnosed in either of our emergency departments with a fracture, or have been sent to hospital by their GP with a suspected fracture.
The fracture clinic forms part of the outpatients department and deals with both acute fractures and orthopaedic conditions.
Each consultant and their team have a specific morning or afternoon for their fracture clinic. Consultants are supported by specialist orthopaedic practitioners and a joint replacement specialist nurse.
There are daily clinics from Monday to Friday, for trauma patients who have been directly referred from the emergency department. There also clinics specialising in the area the patient has sustained a fracture (e.g. ankle, knee, elbow) for those referred by their GP.
You may be sent for an x-ray before you see the doctor. This is because the doctor has already decided that you require a check x-ray either when you were last seen in clinic or from reviewing your notes.
Once you have been x-rayed you will be given a small slip of paper to bring back to the fracture clinic. Please hand this in to the nurse at the front desk to let her know you are back. You will be asked to take a seat in the waiting room until the doctor is free to see you.
Once you have seen the doctor you may be given a piece of paper requesting a treatment such as application of a cast or splint, or review of a surgical wound. This treatment request should be shown to the nurse at the front desk who will direct you to the treatment waiting room ready to be seen when a space becomes available.
Some treatments can take a long time and patients may need to return more than once on that day. We may need to take a patient’s cast off to remove sutures or clean and dress a wound before an x-ray. On your return to fracture clinic you may need a new plaster cast which can extend your wait in clinic.
How to Contact Us
Frimley Park fracture clinic reception: 0300 613 4311 or 0300 613 3581
Frimley Park plaster room: 0300 613 4339
- 9am - 5pm Monday to Friday
Wexham Park fracture clinic reception: 0300 615 4053
Wexham Park plaster room: 0300 615 4058
Heatherwood plaster room: 0300 614 7409
Frimley Park plaster room
The plaster room is located within the hospital's fracture clinic.
Emergency casts which are needed outside of these hours are applied by the emergency department. A variety of basic and specialised casts are applied using plaster of paris and synthetic materials.
The plaster room is a very busy department and treats patients from outpatient clinics, the emergency department and hospital wards.
The department is managed by a qualified plaster technician who is available by telephone to provide advice and support on the care of your cast.
On completion of your consultation in the fracture clinic your doctor may give you a form to be seen by a physiotherapist. We currently have a musculoskeletal physiotherapist allocated to each fracture clinic who will assess you and provide you with some initial exercises to get you started. If they feel it is necessary for you to be reviewed by them, they will give you the contact details of the physiotherapy department for you to contact for a review appointment.
Physiotherapists are also responsible for providing you with crutches and other mobility aids, and teaching you how to use these safely.
Once finished with, crutches should be returned to the physiotherapy department.
Please contact A&E immediately if you experience any of the following:
- Extreme pain or increasing pain since the original injury
- Pain in the chest or shortness of breath
- Your fingers or toes become blue and swollen (not bruising, which can be normal following an injury)
Contact the plaster room if you experience:
- Any ‘blister-like pain’ or rubbing under the cast
- Numbness or pins and needles in the fingers or toes
- Discharge, wetness or smell under the plaster cast
- Swelling that is not going down, even after lifting the limb above heart level
- The cast becoming cracked, soft, loose or tight
- If you drop anything inside your cast
Wexham Park and Heatherwood plaster rooms
Wexham plaster room is in the main outpatients area near the front of the hospital, please use entrance 2 car park.
Heatherwood plaster room is in the outpatients area on the ground floor of the 3 story building by entrance 1, which is the entrance nearest Ascot high street.
The team that works in this department comprises
- two sisters - both registered nurses with the Orthopaedic Nursing Certificate and the British Orthopaedic Association casting certificate;
- one plaster practitioner and two plaster technicians - all holding the British Orthopaedic Association casting certificate, and
- one staff nurse with many years’ experience in the plaster room.
The department, although in the outpatients area, works independently - providing services for the trauma and orthopaedic department, some accident and emergency patients and patients on the wards, and casting for the plastic hand surgeons for patients following injuries.
The original house at Heatherwood began as a hospital in 1922 for the treatment of children of ex-servicemen from the first world war, specialising in the treatment of children with tuberculosis and orthopaedic conditions, and the orthopaedic aftercare department, as it was then known, treated all orthopaedic patients requiring any sort of casting or splinting. This is still the case today and plaster room staff are trained to apply casts, and fit appliances for conditions affecting the upper and lower limbs and the spine. They will measure and organise for shoes to be adapted to improve a person’s gait, and measure and fit simple insoles. Surgical footwear, callipers, irons and the more complex orthotics are now seen by the orthotist working in the appliance clinic.
Patients with an injury, who are seen in the Accident and Emergency department, receive initial treatment from the A&E team. They decide whether to refer a patient on to an orthopaedic surgeon and, depending on the severity, the patient will either be seen at the time - and possibly admitted - or have an appointment arranged for them to be seen in the next available trauma clinic. The BOAST (British Orthopaedic Association Standards for Trauma) guidelines are for this appointment to be within 72 hours and every attempt is made to comply with this. Children are often seen in less than 72 hours.
Trauma clinics
A consultant orthopaedic surgeon and his team of orthopaedic registrars who are 'on call' for that week will see the trauma patients on clinics that run in the mornings on a Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday. At this appointment the patient, or patient's notes and x-rays will first be reviewed by the doctor and treatment prescribed. Sometimes a further x-ray will be necessary. Treatment will be organised and any further appointment will be under the care of the same consultant at their fracture clinic.
Fracture clinics
These occur throughout the week at Wexham. Also, a consultant holds a clinic at Heatherwood on a Friday afternoon. Appointments for patients seen at the Bracknell Urgent Care Centre at Brants Bridge can be made for a Heatherwood clinic.
Orthopaedic clinics
All the orthopaedic consultant surgeons run clinics for patients who need treatment which is not as a result of a recent injury. These clinics are at Wexham or Heatherwood, depending on the consultant, and the plaster Room staff provide services for most of these clinics as well as for all the Trauma and Fracture clinics, staying on duty until they are no longer needed for treating patients.
Following a visit to the Plaster Room, the patient will be given relevant verbal and written information as below, copies of which can be found on the Trust's website.
- Arm plaster cast care (for children discharged from Ward 24)
- Exercises following removal of plaster after a wrist fracture
- Hip spica cast care
- Instructions and advice about your plaster cast – lower limb
- Instructions and advice about your plaster cast – upper limb
- Leg plaster cast care (for children discharged from Ward 24)
- My leg is in a cast (information about Deep Vein Thrombosis and Pulmonary Embolism)
Please contact A&E immediately if you experience any of the following:
- Extreme pain or increasing pain since the original injury
- Pain in the chest or shortness of breath
- Your fingers or toes become blue and swollen (not bruising, which can be normal following an injury)
Please contact the Plaster Room if you experience:
- Any ‘blister-like pain’ or rubbing under the cast
- Numbness or pins and needles in the fingers or toes
- Discharge, wetness or smell under the plaster cast
- Swelling that is not going down, even after lifting the limb above heart level