Minor Surgery
There are some minor surgical procedures which can be performed by your GP in our specialised treatment rooms, rather than having to go to a hospital. These appointments may require extra time so please discuss any of these with your doctor so appointments can be booked appropriately.
Minor surgical procedures performed at the Upper Hutt Health Centre:
- Removal of skin lesions
- In-grown toenails
- Insertion and removal of contraceptive devices
- Steroid joint injections
- Cryotherapy with liquid nitrogen for treating lesions, such as skin tags and verrucae.
More Information
A minor surgical procedure is an operation carried out in our treatment room at the Upper Hutt Health Centre, often using local anaesthetic. The anaesthetic is administered using a very fine needle but the solution causes some initial stinging in the skin, which settles quite quickly. You should not feel any sharp pain after the area has been anaesthetised. When the anaesthetic has worn off (in a few hours) you may require paracetamol but stronger pain relief is not usually required.
Sometimes there will be complications to minor surgical procedures including wound infection, breakdown of the wound (particularly on the lower limbs and back) and sometimes numbness in the vicinity of the wound. Excessive bleeding can be a problem, in particular if you are taking warfarin. Aspirin is not a problem. Other complications are very rare.
Costs
We have tried to keep the cost of minor surgery as low as possible as we do not want this to be barrier, but the extra time involved for the doctor and the nurses and the materials used all add to the cost. If cost is a problem please discuss this with your doctor. For those with health insurance, check and see if your insurance company is funding minor surgery in primary care now, as many have elected to. Alternative arrangements for minor surgery such as private specialist or public hospital specialist services are available and you might like to discuss these with your doctor.