Wellbeing

Your health problems 

solved in a day 

How long have you been putting off that niggling worry

The skin tag on your neck, acne scarring on your back, that frustrating hernia?
Revolutionary new techniques mean that many minor problems can be sorted out almost instantly, leaving you ready to go home within a few hours, as Janet Wright reports

 It really works
Jenny Hancock,
34, from Esher,
Surrey, had put up with varicose veins for eight years before she decided she'd had enough. 'My legs got tired, the veins were very itchy and they looked awful,' she says. 'They were so huge I could feel them through trousers and I didn't want to have ulcers developing as I got older. I needed to get them stripped, but with two small children to look after, I didn't want to stay in hospital for the night. It would have meant so much organising.'
After being referred by her GP she spent a few hours in the out-patient unit of her local hospital, then left the same day with her legs tightly bandaged and a sheet of after care instructions in her handbag. 'I was surprised at how quick and relatively pain-free it was,' says Jenny.

What has made this 'instant' treatment possible is not just better techniques, but more sophisticated drugs. New fast-acting anaesthetics let the patient wake up just minutes after a minor operation without the groggy 'hangover' of older methods. And the modern 'hospital-strength' painkillers can now be safely used at home.
Of course, you're not just helped off the operating table and pushed out of the door. If you've been given a general anaesthetic you'll be wheeled back to a bed to lie down while you recover. A friend or relative has to collect you and stay home with you for at least a day. If that's not possible, some hospitals run a 'hotel' where patients can stay to recover after surgery.

s much as you'd like to deal with that awkward health problem, you know that with the school run to tit in, meals to cook, plus a Job to hold down, a few days - even weeks - out of action in hospital is just too much to contemplate. The straw that breaks the camel's back.
There is a solution, and believe it or not it's right on your doorstep. A revolution in local hospitals, private clinics, GP surgeries and opticians means that many minor health problems can be sorted out in a matter of hours, not days.

Treatment on your doorstep
An ever-increasing number of GPs will carry out minor health procedures in their own surgeries. They'll whip off in-growing toenails, remove skin tags, sebaceous cysts or inconvenient moles and some even do vasectomies. More serious problems, such as severe acne scarring, are still referred to a specialist hospital clinic. But you won't have to pack your nightie - day units at many hospitals let people arrive in the morning, have their operation under local or general anaesthetic during the day, and be home before nightfall.

Other common day-surgery ops include stripping out varicose veins, removing hernia gallstones, breast lumps, cataracts, and haemorrhoids. Surgeons can repair injured joints, remove torn cartilage, reverse vasectomies and release trapped carpal tunnel nerves in the wrist.

Keyhole surgery or laparoscopy is a miracle of modern science: a tiny camera on a flexible tube that can be slipped into a patient's abdomen through the tiniest incision in the navel. The surgeon watches pictures from the camera on a television screen instead of looking at the patient, while working with instruments slipped in through other small incisions.
Hysteroscopy is the gynacaecological version, with the camera on its tube entering through the vagina so there's one less incision.
This kind of 'minimal invasive procedure' can do less damage and heal faster than conventional methods.
There have been teething problems with this new technology. Some operations have gone wrong in the hands of specialists who are new to this technique - and it now forms part of a surgeon's training.