Hubs halting surgery pile-up
SURGICAL hubs are providing a vital boost in the battle to clear the backlog of 5.8 million patients waiting for planned NHS treatment.
Located on existing hospital sites, they increase capacity for operations and provide a more Covid-secure environment.
The Daily Express visited Queen Mary’s Hospital in Roehampton, south-west London, where a pioneering treatment centre built in a car park has helped to slash the number of patients waiting over a year.
The surgical centre was constructed in less than four months and has had more than 1,200 patients since June.
It houses four state-of-theart theatres, pre-operative rooms and a recovery area where patients can wait while their anaesthetic wears off.
The unit is used by doctors for day surgery where patients do not need to stay overnight.
Dr Ben Ayres, a consultant urological surgeon, said: “It’s a very solid structure and a very well-equipped building. This has made a huge impact on us being able to bring down waiting lists.We’re putting low complexity cases through here at a high volume.”
Moving day surgery to the new treatment centre has freed up capacity for more complex operations in the main hospital, which is part of St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
Numbers waiting more than a year to start treatment at the trust have fallen from 2,600 in March to just over 1,000.
The Royal College of Surgeons of England called for units to be launched in every region.Vice-president Fiona Myint said: “There are 5.83 million people in England waiting for hospital treatment. Surgical hubs are our best option for keeping planned surgery running.”