Hip surgery in Bury St Edmunds

Hip surgery can help give you back movement that's free of pain and stiffness

St Edmunds Hospital is located on the beautiful St. Mary's Square, just across from the Greene King Brewery in Bury St Edmunds. People visit us from Newmarket, Diss, Sudbury, Thetford, Woolpit and Mildenhall. We also see patients from Hadleigh, Stowmarket, Ely and Haverhill. If you’re living in one of these areas and looking for a private hospital near you, our team is ready and waiting to help you.

Our hip surgeons at The St Edmunds Hospital are well versed in dealing with a wealth of hip complaints, which affect everyone from sportspeople to those who have suffered trauma.

Our goal is to help you feel better fast. Get in touch today and we aim to book your initial consultation within 48 hours. Our team will work to quickly diagnose the cause of your pain, before building a bespoke treatment plan based on your individual needs.

To book your initial consultation with us, call us on 01284 701371. Or, book online today.

The St Edmunds Hospital sees a lot of patients who think they have a hip problem, but some have a spinal condition instead, with X-rays and MRI scans necessary to make such a diagnosis.

Some GPs and patients think, that if the patient has buttock pain, they are suffering with a hip problem. When we talk to them about their symptoms, though, we discover that it isn’t the hip that is the problem – or when we examine them, and the hip isn’t that painful.

Pain associated with pins and needles, for example, can be nerve-related pain. If you have pain in your hip or legs caused by spinal problems, this is known as referred pain.

In those who have hip problems, the main symptom may be pain in the groin that goes down towards the knee.

Occasionally, we see some patients who have a lot of pain in the knee, and they visit us thinking they have a knee problem. Then we X-ray them and examine the knee and find that the knee is fine.

When you X-ray the hip, it may show arthritis – and then when we examine the hip, they nearly jump off the examination couch. That’s something that when you’ve been a consultant for 20+ years, experience teaches you, says a key consultant within our team.

What the patient needs quite often, though is just a diagnosis.

If it’s purely a soft tissue problem, then it’s not something that will show up on an X-ray, which is obviously the easiest investigation for their GP to organise. Not all GPs have access to organising, say, ultrasound or MRI investigations, though.

We also see some younger patients with labral tears or various soft tissue conditions around the hip. A lot of these patients don’t need surgery; they may need an ultrasound with one of our radiologists, though. Or they may need some rehabilitation under the supervision of a good physiotherapist.

A lot of patients in the east of England, either if they’ve been to see a GP or they have seen one of the physiotherapists on the muscular skeletal pathways within primary care, will have had an X-ray – certainly if they have an injury, they will have visited their local A&E department. This will help exclude a fracture.

Some GPs, in Norfolk for example (only 20 miles from where we work), may have better access to MRI scans, but these need to be recommended by a specialist.

During a consultation for hip pain, we will take a patient’s full medical history, as well as discuss any medication they are on. We will also ask them about their symptoms.

From there, we will try to make a diagnosis by examining the hip and/or sending the patient for further investigations, such as scans. Once we have a diagnosis, we will discuss together the best route forward, which may or may not be surgery.

One option for some patients with hip pain is injection pain relief. Under local anesthetic, a radiologist will inject steroids into the affected joint, which can ease swelling and pain and restore mobility in your hip.

A radiologist performs this procedure because they can use Imaging to make sure they put the injection in the right place, where it will be a lot more effective. This is better for the patient; the radiologist can localise it quite specifically.

Physiotherapy

For some patients, physiotherapy can be used instead of, or to delay the need for, hip replacement surgery.

We use a network of excellent local Physiotherapists; we cover an area of around 30-mile circumference, in the north, east, south, and west. Our patients generally want to be seen locally and we can normally point them in the right direction; we have worked with some of the local physiotherapists for many years.

Physiotherapy will also be needed after hip replacement surgery, and as well as our local network of great Physiotherapists, we also have an in-house team to treat patients staying with us.

Pain Specialists

For patients with complex medical conditions, where surgery may be higher risk, we can point them in the direction of a pain specialist, or a rheumatologist, for example.

An important role as an orthopaedic surgeon is to signpost people to the right professional, as surgery isn’t always the answer.

Private hip surgery at St Edmunds Hospital in Suffolk

Hip arthritis, unfortunately, doesn’t tend to respond to pain killers and physiotherapy the way knee arthritis does. For many people, hip surgery will be necessary. The most common hip procedure we perform in our hip and knee clinic is hip replacement surgery.

Hip Replacement surgery

A lot of patients have already tried the non-invasive treatments outlined above and not had a good outcome. They may suffer from chronic pain or night pain, and their mobility may be deteriorating.

These are the type of people we suggest hip replacement surgery for. Hip replacement surgery is a highly successful procedure that offers great results. We find that most patients, if it goes well, would recommend the surgery to a friend or a family member. For them, it’s like a miracle.

We continue to work with patients after the surgery. If they do their exercises/rehab, they will get a good outcome.

For all orthopaedic surgeons working within the UK, it’s mandatory that their information is registered on the National Joint Registry – and it’s reassuring for patients to know that around 94-95% of hip replacements are still working well 10 years later.

Recovery after hip replacement surgery

Patients generally come back for their six-week check and they tell us that the pain in their groin is gone. They have a bit of soreness from the operation, though. They’re still feeling a bit tired, but they will tell us their mobility has improved and pain has reduced.

There are many reasons to choose B St Edmunds Hospital. One of these is our enhanced recovery technique, which we use widely for both hip and knee replacement.

After surgery, you will be mobilised by our nursing and physio team the same afternoon. As soon as you can get in and out of bed, go to the toilet and walk around, you will be discharged.

With this method, length of stay is generally only two days; the quicker you get up and are mobile, the less risk of thrombosis.

Length of stay is reduced compared to NHS too. And you receive a more bespoke service, where your stay depends on your personal needs. We find that people don’t want to be in hospital any longer than they need to be.

Reduced waiting times – Patients who visit St Edmunds Hospital can benefit from shorter waiting times and treatment, than if, for example, they were to wait for surgery on the NHS.

Flexible appointments – You can choose an appointment time to suit you and your schedule; in some cases, remote consultations will be offered.

Consultant-led appointments – Your appointment will be consultant-led, and you will see the same person each time – from your consultation, right through to any treatment needed.

Patient satisfaction and personalised care – In an independent survey* in 2020, 99% of our patients said they would recommend St Edmunds Hospital.

*Results were compiled by healthcare agency, Quality Health.

We see patients within a 30-mile radius of Bury St Edmunds. Sometimes, they will come from further than that – for example, one previous patient came from as far away as Chelmsford. Word of mouth is important.

People are shopping around these days, especially if they are in terrible pain; they are trying to find the surgeon in the next city or county who is well known, but also who can treat them sooner than the surgeon within their area.

The conditions may not be life-threatening, but severe pain due to arthritis does affect your quality of life. Prompt surgery is key, and we see people from a host of local cities and towns, including Mendlesham, Rattlesden, Stanton, and many more.