Saturday, July 30 2005 19:01 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

London: An NRI surgeon cast aside health service bureaucracy to tackle waiting lists at his hospital by conducting 70 operations during his weeklong annual leave.

Sixty-year old Satya Agarwala, an orthopedic surgeon, has been praised by health chiefs after he took annual leave to free himself from other surgical duties and work through a backlog of operations at the Worthing and Southlands Hospital, in Sussex.

He carried out 70 procedures to treat patients suffering from carpal tunnel syndrome. The condition causes severe pain and pins and needles in the wrist but is treatable with a straight-forward operation.

The week-long campaign by the surgeon has reduced the hospital's orthopedic waiting list by a month and left only nine carpal tunnel patients still waiting operations.

Agarwala and Phil Taylor, a surgical planning coordinator, located an under-used surgical day center in the hospital and asked almost 100 patients if they wished to attend.

Playing down his achievement, Agarwala said yesterday (July 29, 2005) that hospital managers and administrative staff deserved credit for helping the initiative to work so smoothly.

"Treating patients is my job and this was just another way to do it," he told reporters. "The actual operation is very straightforward. What takes the time is the paperwork and talking to patients, before and after, about the procedure," he said.

The patients of the surgeon, who has worked at the hospital for 18 years, were able to go home a few hours after being operated on.