Drug addicts and violent youngsters are putting an intolerable pressure on Bradford's plastic surgeons forcing the cancellation of operations for the victims of breast cancer.

Surgeons have had to amputate arms of addicts infected by needles and perform skin grafts for violent youngsters instead of helping cancer victims.

Waiting lists for patients not considered emergency cases are rising because of the emergency work, and that means women needing breast reconstruction surgery face a traumatic 12-month wait.

Professor David Sharpe, Consultant Plastic Surgeon at Bradford Royal Infirmary, said his team needed more money to help ease the plight.

In the past year, Prof Sharpe and his team had to amputate the arms of two drug addicts because of untreatable abscesses caused by injecting narcotics.

And they are facing ever-increasing numbers of youngsters who require treatment after punching windows or being involved in brawls.

Prof Sharpe said: "We see a lot of drug-related injuries, some from assaults - there's a bit more violence around. And we get drug abusers with needle injuries to the arm causing serious injuries to the vessels (veins) in the arms. We had to cut off at least two arms last year because of abscesses.

"Their lifestyle is such that they're more vulnerable. We see more complicated injuries through drug abuse. Because of their lifestyles, many of them just don't come back or don't return in the morning. What happens to them I can't imagine."

And that pressure is having a knock-on effect.

"We are seeing a deterioration in the service," he said.

And he believed more money was needed to help tackle the problem.

"The trust is doing the best it can with limited resources, but there is not enough money from central government or the community care groups to pay for all these demands."

The last available figures reveal that the city's plastic surgeons treated 145 emergency cases among Bradford residents in October - a 21 per cent increase on the same time the previous year.

And Geoff Hinds, co-ordinator of Bridge, Bradford's street drugs project, said he tried to give information and advice to young addicts.

"The problem is that some people leave things. The younger users that we see tend to be more chaotic injectors."

Plastic surgeon Prof Sharpe said that young men were also adding to the emergency workload. "There are a lot of young men punching their hands through windows. It seems to be a fashion in the last few years, born out of frustration. It's not necessarily self-inflicted but sheer frustration."

The glass injuries can lead to tendon and nerve damage, which need skilled plastic surgery to repair.

The plastic surgery department's move from St Luke's Hospital to Bradford Royal Infirmary, close to the Accident and Emergency department, meant that colleagues in Casualty were more likely to ask specialist plastic surgeons to stitch wounds, adding to the workload although it was a good use of the service, said Prof Sharpe. He is pressing for a fourth plastic surgery consultant for the district.

Richard Longbottom, senior planning manager at Bradford Health Authority, said authorities in the region were meeting plastic surgeons as part of a co-ordinated bid to tackle the problem of increasing workload.

"We are increasing the money we are putting into the service so that the amount of accident and emergency work doesn't continue to impinge on the elective (planned and routine) work, which creates long waiting times," he said.

Health authority figures show that the new Primary Care Groups in Bradford, which buy health care for their patients, have bought 220 more plastic surgery treatments to ensure no one is waiting more than 12 months for treatment by March this year.

T&A Opinion

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