Well I have had my operation, and I am going to continue this thread. After the operation it seems even more important to have chosen the right surgeon.
In the end I chose Dr. De Smet, and perhaps I could not have done better, but here are my experiences with other surgeons and why I did not chose them. I had long decided that I wanted an uncemented resurfacing.
I live in Thailand and found two surgeons in Bangkok who do resurfacing and both at the time had done about fifty resurfacings and only offered the Birmingham device. The first one answered my questions but gave me absolutely no confidence. He was cocky and the whole hospital setup seemed merely to make money. I quickly discounted him.
The second surgeon I met in Bangkok is worth mentioning, Dr. Sitthiporn Orapin. He spent a long time with me, answered all of my questions and gave additional information. He definitely came over as a competent surgeon who is interested in his patients. Latterly, I met someone who had had a resurfacing done by him and was pleased. I would have preferred to have had the operation done in Bangkok so I would not have had to travel abroad, but I did not choose this doctor because (as I gathered from this site) he had done too few operations to be sufficiently experienced, and he did not offer an uncemented option. Additionally, the operation in Bangkok was not too cheap.
After this I started looking at England as I have family there.
I was interested in the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital as both Mr. McMinn and Treacy do operations there. The ROH web site includes information for a private ward and service (I am not covered by National Health or insurance), and looks as if they are well set up to do private surgeries. So I contacted them by e-mail and got no reply. Tried contacting them by phone and never got put through. Contacted them again a few weeks later by e-mail and still got no reply. This is no slur on the two surgeons, but what a ridiculous service by the hospital!
London would have been convenient to me, but many of the private surgeries in London would just have been too expensive.
I did contact St. Anthonys Hospital in South London, and initially was pleased. They replied quickly, with a reasonable quote and said that they could do uncemented. The surgeon would have been Mr. Richard Field, who they said would prefer to use the Mitch Per device. From then things went downhill. They suggested I contacted another secretary, who suggested I contact the first. They could give me no more information than was in the first reply. The Mitch Per device is largely unknown, and there is no information from the manufacturer. It might well be good but who knows? I believe Mr. Field has interests in its development as well. So I requested more information about the device and was told only Mr. Field could answer, and that I would need a private consultation with him that would start at one hundred and eighty pounds. I wrote back that this was not particularly convenient for me as I live thousands of miles away, and I requested his secretary for some information about the device, and also some information about the surgeon himself, how many resurfacings, etc.
I got no reply. I was angry at the time.
Not everything was bad about England. I contacted Mr. McMinn’s private clinic, and they were polite, very helpful, and perhaps the most efficient of anywhere that I had tried. Although I did not speak to Mr. McMinn personally, I was at last pleased to have had some good service from England, although by that time I had already decided on Dr. De Smet.
It was rather strange for me to contact a surgeon in Belgium. Belgium! I did not expect much. Dr. De Smet replied to me personally, politely, quickly and answered my questions. I was so pleased at being treated as a human by a surgeon that I decided on Dr. De Smet. I understand, now, that he might be the best in the world, although it is difficult for a prospective patient to gauge a surgeon.
So it seems quite simple to me. Only choose a surgeon that treats you as a human being, as only he will operate on you knowing that you are human.
Thank you.
Topic: Simple Criterion To Choose A Surgeon (Read 4417 times)
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