Mr Am Rai (Amarjit Singh Rai) was awarded the iWantGreatCare certificate of excellence in 2024 for delivering outstanding care.
Reviews
Recommend
Trust
Listening
Mr Am Rai (Amarjit Singh Rai)
2023-07-11
Person
5
5
0
11th July 2023
As I engaged with Spire Norwich to look at treatment options for my back and based on recommendations from friends, I was happy to enlist Mr Rai as my consultant. From the initial consultation I was impressed with his honesty as to the likely outcomes based on the options that were available to me. I was very confident in his surgical expertise and had no doubts that surgical intervention would give me the best chance of a recovery. I therefore elected to have discectomy/decompression surgery which was carried out on May 26th and I am pleased to confirm that improvements are already evident.
Mr Am Rai (Amarjit Singh Rai)
2023-07-10
Person
5
5
0
10th July 2023
Mr Rai accurately assessed my condition and talked me through the options and possible outcomes. He listened to my questions and concerns and together we formulated the best plan.
We underwent several consultations to ensure I was confident to proceed with the procedure, was attentive post surgery and we had sufficient follow up appointments.
I would highly recommend Mr Rai for his expertise and professionalism.
Mr Am Rai (Amarjit Singh Rai)
2023-07-10
Person
5
5
0
10th July 2023
From start to finish Mr Rai was friendly, professional and proficient.
I had been suffering from severe spinal stenosis and was at a point where I feared losing feeling in my legs and feet meaning I may end up paralysed.
An MRI the previous year had identified the stenosis, a further CT scan confirmed the problem. Mr Rai suggested a further MRI as my condition was rapidly deteriorating. The new scan revealed that a cyst which had not been recognised, I underwent an operation to remove cyst and allow the spinal chord more room whereby relieving pressure on the nerves. The surgery (laminectimy and microdiscectomy) involved a small incision in the lumbar area and removal of bone and disc. The relief on both legs and feet is almost instaneous. I am still in physiotherapy stage but am almost back to full fitness.
Mr Rai took time to discuss all options prior to the procedure and allowed enough time for me to consider best option for me, with his guidance.
After the operation Mr Rai followed up with regular face to face meetings until we were both satisfied that the operation was fully successful.
I cannot thank Mr Rai enough for giving me a new lease of life and would fully recommend that anyone requiring similar treatment should seek Mr Rai's help.
Mr Am Rai (Amarjit Singh Rai)
2023-07-05
Person
5
5
0
5th July 2023
Before the operation, the procedure was explained to me in detail including any potential risks . The after care was excellent and my condition improved immediately.
I would be more than happy to put myself in Mr Rai's care in the future, should the need arise.
Mr Am Rai (Amarjit Singh Rai)
2023-07-03
Person
5
5
0
3rd July 2023
I had been suffering acute pain relating to a herniated disc at L3/L4 for 3 months. I had literally lost my life, I couldn’t walk, go about my normal business or even take care of myself independently due to the extreme pain.
The analgesics I was on didn’t touch the pain, I had numerous visits to my GP, physios and one trip to A&E. I eventually self paid for an MRI and being new to Norfolk set about researching a surgeon, Mr Rai’s name came up and I read various reviews such as this as well as having a verbal recommendation from a previous patient of his.
Knowing that I couldn’t wait for the NHS, I was seen privately by Mr Rai within a week of the MRI. The consultation was handled well, he was understanding, clear, concise and very professional. He even made a video on my phone of the scan and explained the diagnosis and plan for surgery so that I could share it with medical friends later and listen to it after the consultation. I am very hard of hearing so it was useful for me to listen to the information again at my leisure. I had complete confidence in Mr Rai and immediately felt comfortable under his care.
I had surgery within a week of that initial consultation. The surgery wasn’t easy as far as I understand but I was standing and standing straight within a couple of hours of getting back to my room after the op. I was home the next day. Some 12 days post op., I have seen Mr Rai today for follow up and I am doing well, I am delighted that I no longer have the intense nerve pain I suffered pre operatively, I am still sore from the operation but well on my way to recovery. My wife and I have even been out for lunch today and honestly, we haven’t been out for months.
The service I received has been transformative, the care excellent and I have no hesitation in recommending Mr Rai and his team if you are in the unfortunate situation I was suffering acute back pain.
Profile
Experience and training
Mr Am Rai was elected President of the British Association of Spinal Surgeons by his surgical peers and has been on the BASS Executive Committee for 6 years. He has published on national best practice surgical guidelines, helped develop the British Spinal Registry (over 150,000 patients), involved in National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines and government led regional variation in surgical practice across England. Mr. Rai set up the Travelling Spinal Fellowship (administered through BASS & British Scoliosis Society) aimed at prospective new Spinal consultants.
He is fellowship trained (Australia, European Travelling Fellowship, South Africa and USA) and to date has trained over 12 spinal consultants who currently work throughout the UK. Mr. Rai has helped develop core curriculum for spinal training and was the Foundation Programme Director for junior doctors.
He has more than 20 years of consultant spinal experience and has been involved in over 10,000 surgical procedures.
He is director of a spinal charity Spine Aid which, arranges regular trips abroad for a team of spinal surgeons, medical students, neurophysiology technicians and anaesthetists to help treat under privileged children with spinal deformities. Mr Rai hopes to devote more time to this charitable work.
What Can you expect?
Surgery is always a last resort, but certain conditions and states of health may suggest it as a best option. There is good evidence in the literature that spinal surgery for nerve compression gives the best validated results as good as any other surgical procedure. Many patients are keen to get the best surgical opinion which is based on experience, training and appropriate patient selection. Surgeons in the modern era are duty bound to validate their results to ensure patients receive advise based on outcome data.
Mr Rai is an advocate of giving experienced and validated advice with outcome data to confirm treatment plans. He will allow as much time as is required to give his patients a balanced opinion. This will often involve reviewing images, discussion with other specialists and surgical colleagues.
Mr Rai appreciates the disability from spinal disease as he himself has had spinal surgery.
British Spinal Registry(BSR).
Since 2008 I have prospectively collected outcome data on all my private patients undergoing spinal surgery. This allows me to look at all my surgical results, compare them with other units and ultimately improve and monitor patient outcomes.
I have one of the largest series of outcome data from an individual consultant in Europe and our unit is in the process of publishing this.
The following is example of the data we have collected since 2008:
This data is collected on my behalf by an independent Spinal Specialist physiotherapist (Jonathan Geere) who is the main driver responsible for us to have data collection as good as anywhere in the world. This table shows, with our patients’ help, we collect 97% of the data compared to the national average of 43%. At one year after surgery the data we have collected as comprehensive as the Scandinavian (considered as gold standard in terms of data collection in healthcare in the world).
With this data we can look at various interactions and analyse and compare our results with other countries
Results of discectomy patients
Comparison group / other centres was from:
Rushton, A., et al. (2020). "Clinical course of pain and disability following primary lumbar discectomy: systematic review and meta-analysis." Eur Spine J 29(7): 1660-1670.
We can also look at how comorbidities and sex affect results of spinal surgery. This has revealed hormonal changes around the menopause may affect surgical results.
We also looked at diabetes and found greater proportion patients requiring revision surgery. This emphasises the importance of improving ones health prior to surgery.
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