Orthopaedic Outpatients

Our team of specialists run many clinics in our orthopaedic outpatients departments at the University Hospital of North Tees and the University Hospital of Hartlepool. We run a smaller range of specialty clinics at Peterlee Community Hospital and Lawson Street Medical Centre.

These clinics include:

• upper limb including a one stop shoulder clinic, musculoskeletal ultrasound, shoulder and elbow clinic, hand and wrist clinics
• lower limb including hip and knee clinics, joint replacement clinics, foot and ankle clinics
• trauma clinics including new injury clinics, fracture review clinics, dressing clinics
• spinal clinics
• physiotherapy specifically to see fracture patients
• plaster room who treat any trauma patients, plus specialised services for podiatry and paediatric physiotherapy

Once you have your new patient orthopaedic outpatient appointment booked with us you will receive an appointment letter to inform you when your appointment is and where you need to go.

This will tell you which consultant is leading your care or which specialist clinic you will be attending; you may see the consultant or a member of their team including specialist nurses, physiotherapists, hand therapists, and trainee doctors.

What do I do when I arrive for my appointment?

When you arrive for your appointment you should go to the orthopaedic outpatient reception desk to let them know you have arrived and they will direct you to the right area.

You will also have the opportunity to use one of our self check in kiosks as a convenient alternative to waiting for one of our reception team. You can do this by entering your details in to the kiosk and checking in.

Chaperoning

A chaperone is a Health Professional who can be with you during a physical examination or procedure to offer support and reassurance and answer questions.Please ask a member of staff for support

What to bring with you

When you come for your appointment please bring your appointment letter.

One week before your appointment you will be contacted either by our automated appointment confirmation system or by a text message to your mobile phone to remind you about your appointment. This will ask you to confirm your appointment or give you an option to cancel and re-book.

If you need to cancel your appointment, please let us know as soon as possible by ringing our central booking office on 01642 383838. Occasionally we may need to re-arrange your appointment date or time and we will try to give you as much notice as possible.

Can I have a virtual appointment?

We offer virtual appointments across a number of specialities. Depending on your preference this could be via telephone or video. If a virtual appointment is more convenient for you than travelling to the hospital, please discuss this with your consultant team who will advise what would be possible, safe and effective for you. Taking into consideration your specific condition and circumstances. 

Video appointments can be accessed via our Video consultations area. It is great if you can prepare for your virtual appointment as you would a face to face appointment in our hospital.

What are patient initiated follow-ups?

A Patient Initiated Follow up (PIFU) is a new way of arranging your hospital outpatient appointments.

Currently, regular follow-up appointments are arranged by the hospital within a specific timeframe. For example, every six months or every year. Some patients find these regular visits useful and reassuring. For others, it can be frustrating or stressful coming to hospital if they do not feel they need to.

Through your PIFU plan you can arrange follow-up appointments with your hospital care team when you feel you need them, or if your symptoms get worse. This puts you in control of your follow-up appointments and gives you access to support and guidance when you need it most.

Please be aware that PIFU appointments may not suitable for every condition, your hospital care team will be able to discuss this further with you. 

We Make Every Contact Count

We understand that lots of different factors have an impact on our health and wellbeing – the physical environment in which we live, our homes, our jobs, our finances, our social networks, genetics, education and our behaviour (smoking, activity levels, our diet). It is important that we understand if there is anything else that we can do so support you to improve your health and wellbeing.

We encourage our staff to ‘make every contact count’ with you and that might mean that they ask you about your lifestyle – how much you move each day, if you smoke or even how well you are sleeping. We would encourage you to embrace those conversations and if you would like some further support to explore how you could start to make changes that could improve your lifestyle we will be here to help.

We have lots of useful information that our teams have pulled together in our Live Well section, that we hope you will find informative and useful.

Clinic times

Contact