More than 50 new surgical hubs will open across England to help reduce Covid backlogs, Health Secretary Steve Barclay has said.
The new hubs will provide at least 100 more operating theatres and 1,000 more beds, with the target of delivering almost two million extra routine operations over the next three years, he said. The beds will be allocated for planned operations, which the Government hopes will reduce the risk of short-notice cancellations.
The new hubs are backed by £1.5 billion allocation funding and have been introduced to help cut waiting lists which were made worse by the pandemic. Mr Barclay said: “In order to bust the Covid backlogs and keep pace with future demands, we can’t simply have business as usual.
“Surgical hubs are a really tangible example of how we are already innovating and expanding capacity to fill surgical gaps right across the country, to boost the number of operations and reduce waiting times for vital procedures. We have already made progress in tackling the longest waiting lists to offer patients quicker access to treatment, and these new surgical hubs will in their own right deliver additional operations over the next three years, including over 200,000 this year alone.”
NHS chief executive Amanda Pritchard said: “Surgical hubs are a vital part of plans to recover elective services across England and these new sites will be a welcome boost in helping us to further tackle the Covid-19 backlogs that have inevitably built up over the pandemic. The NHS has made significant progress already, virtually eliminating two-year waits for care by the end of July and from surgical hubs to robotic surgery, our staff continue to find innovative ways to speed up care for patients.”
The Department for Health and Social Care said the new hubs will provide at least 100 more operating theatres and over 1,000 beds, allowing the NHS to carry out more than 200,000 extra procedures in 2022-23, more than 700,000 in 2023-24, and one million in 2024-25. The hubs will focus mainly on providing high-volume, low-complexity surgery, such as cataract surgeries and hip replacements, and will be located on existing hospital sites.
Locations for 20 of the new or expanded hubs have already been confirmed. Currently, 91 surgical hubs have already been opened, meaning in total more than 140 hubs will be open across England by 2024/25.
The announcement comes after an angry member of the public confronted Mr Barclay in the street on Thursday, demanding to know why the Government has done “nothing” about lengthy waits for ambulances.
The Cabinet minister was speaking to media outside Moorfields Eye Hospital in Old Street, central London, which has a hub, when a woman interrupted him to say “people have died” during waits for the emergency services.
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