Patient Information

Prior to Surgery

Once you have made the decision to proceed with surgery, there is some organising to be done.

Funding Your Surgery

ACC Funding

Even if your injury has been covered by ACC, we will need to complete an application to ACC to fund your surgery. This is an Assessment Report and Treatment Plan (ARTP). Approval can take between 10 days and several months. More information on the ACC process.

Self-Funding

Once your funding is arranged, you can simply contact the office to find a suitable date

Health Insurance Cover

We will provide you with an estimate of your surgical expenses for your insurance company. In some cases, the insurance provider also requires copies of clinic letters and referrals, which we can provide if required.

Paperwork and information pack

You will receive a pre-op information pack with a health questionnaire and other forms that you will need to complete and send back to the hospital. This pack also contains instructions on when to stop eating and drinking, what medications to stop and when to arrive at hospital

Braces or crutches

If you require a brace, splint or crutches, you will need to collect these prior to your day of surgery., These can be collected either direct from our rooms, or from Orthotics SI Limited on 9 Walker St, Sydenham in Christchurch.

Anaesthetic review

For patients with complex medical conditions, we will often arrange for a pre-op review by a specialist physician or anaesthetist to make sure you have the safest operation possible.

Preparing Yourself for Surgery

Pre-habilitation

To get the best result out of your surgery, it is often necessary to undergo a period of rehabilitation prior to surgery. For example, it is critical that a patient undergoing ACL reconstruction can fully straighten their leg and have good muscle function around the knee prior to surgery. We will advise you and guide you in this process.

Smoking

Smoking has major negative consequences on many aspects of surgery, including higher rates of anaesthetic complication, cardiovascular risk and impairing tendon, bone and wound healing. Increased rates of infection, failure of tendon repair and higher rates of fracture non-union are all consequences of smoking. Thankfully, quitting smoking for a little as 2 weeks prior to surgery and the 3 months afterwards can improve many of these risks.

In some cases, we will not consider surgery on patients who continue to smoke, due to the unacceptable risk of complications