Members of the public are invited to The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital’s Annual General Meeting next week.

The meeting will take place on Thursday 28 September (1pm) in Meeting Room 1, which can be found upstairs within the Main Entrance building at the Oswestry-based hospital.

The meeting will cover the 2022/23 financial year and will feature a number of speakers. Chief Executive Stacey Keegan will present a review of the year and a forward look; Chief Nurse and Patient Safety Officer Paul Kavanagh-Fields will present the Quality Account for the year; while Chief Finance and Planning Officer Craig Macbeth will give an overview of the Trust’s Annual Accounts.

Proceedings will be chaired by Harry Turner, the Trust Chair, who will also present the Council of Governors’ Report for the year.

Harry said: “The Annual General Meeting is an opportunity for the organisation to reflect on the highs and lows of the year, and to and identify its priorities for the coming period.

“We will cover our work on a bold five-year strategy for growth and our work alongside our partners in the Shropshire Telford and Wrekin Integrated Care System to transform and modernise our musculoskeletal services.

“There will also be time to look back on the highlights of the past year – including the opening of our fabulous £6 million Headley Court Veterans’ Orthopaedic Centre, as well as the winning of two National Orthopaedic Alliance Excellence in Orthopaedics Awards for some of our ground-breaking work.”

The AGM next week will also feature a presentation from Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon Mr Geraint Thomas, who will talk about the Trust’s Enhanced Recovery Programme.
Enhanced Recovery ensures that patients health is optimised prior to surgery, improved pain management is introduced during their hospital stay and post-operative mobilisation is achieved earlier.

Patients who are under the enhanced recovery pathway are discharged from hospital when safe – this could be the same day as surgery. At the moment, enhanced recovery is only offered to patients undergoing hip and knee replacements at RJAH. There are plans to roll out this programme to other areas in the future.

Chief Executive Stacey Keegan added: “The 2022/23 year was another challenging one as we continued to manage the ramifications of the coronavirus pandemic and spells of industrial action which continue to this day but, as this meeting will show, there is still so much for us to be positive about.

“We would be delighted to have as many members of the public as possible join us for proceedings and look forward to inviting them on the day.”