A senior physiotherapist at an Oxford hospital is the first in the UK to give patients a helping hand to speed up their care.

Celine Roy has been given extra responsibilities at the Radcliffe Infirmary's hand clinic, enabling her to assess and treat patients and cut waiting times by up to three quarters.

The department sees about 30 to 40 patients every month, who wait an average of 17 weeks to be assessed by a consultant surgeon.

Using £95,000 of Government funding, Miss Roy's clinic will double the amount of referrals and reduce waits to a month.

Every week, she will be able to see about 18 people, suffering conditions like carpal tunnel syndrome, which causes finger pain; trigger finger, when fingers cannot be straightened, or Dupuytren's disease, when the hand starts to claw.

As well as using splints or physiotherapy, she will be able to administer injections for more complex cases, and if a patient needs surgery, she will put them straight on to the operation waiting list without referring them to a consultant.

As an extended scope practitioner, Miss Roy will also provide training for GPs and community health workers to increase their expertise in hand therapy. She said: "This project will benefit both staff and patients. Patients will experience shorter waiting times, better continuity of care with referral to only one person, and access to the consultant specialist for more complex cases will be improved."

The 18-month initiative is one of 19 pilot projects across the UK, which make up a Government initiative called Action on Plastic Surgery.

The RI's physio-led hand clinic is the first of its kind, and was set up by Miss Roy, consultant plastic surgeon Henk Giele and project manager Liz Hedinger.

Mrs Hedinger said the project was a cost effective way to improve patient care.

She said: "Demand is increasing and we have got to meet that. We could increase our consultant capacity, but using physiotherapists is less expensive.

"Although there are examples of physiotherapy-led clinics in other services in the UK, this project covers patient satisfaction and cost effectiveness in a much more detailed way than has been done before."