The team behind brand new surgical theatres on the Team Valley Trading Estate are hoping their state-of-the-art new premises will help the NHS bring down massive waiting lists and make it easier for patients across the North East to get vital treatments.
The Tyneside Surgical Services group has provided NHS procedures since 2007 - previously working out of otherwise unused theatre space in local hospitals and from bases at health centres across the region.
But it has recently opened a brand new surgical suite on the Team Valley Trading Estate featuring three flexible spaces including one theatre, along with adaptable endoscopy and pain management facilities which can be transformed into additional space to carry out day-case surgery.
Read more: Omicron wave hit 'about 10%' of elective operations at North East NHS Trust in January
The idea is to boost NHS capacity by helping to take on procedures which can be dealt with without requiring a patient is admitted to hospital overnight. This comes as hospitals around the region struggle with spiralling post- Covid waiting lists, and the team at TSS think making use of their facilities can free up NHS trusts to make inroads into their backlogs of more complex cases.
TSS offers ten specialities ranging from orthopaedic surgery to gynaecological procedures. It's consultants all have NHS practices too - while execs have extensive experience working for local hospital trusts.
Steve Atkinson - TSS's commercial director - remains a registered nurse and spent 35 years working for the NHS in Gateshead. He said: "You go to your GP with, say, a hand problem - your GP says it's something that requires a consultant opinion, and then as a patient you can go online and book your appointment. We are part of that menu of options. If after that it's treatment you need, you'll be put on the TSS waiting list.
"Patients should know we have short waiting times, everything we do is consultant-led, and we constantly get five-star reviews from the people we treat."
This works through the Government's NHS e-Referral Service - formerly known as Choose and Book - and the Health Secretary Sajid Javid has this year outlined plans to allow patients who are waiting for surgery the right to choose where they want to have it.
TSS ran the first operations at its new base in January this year - and saw around 350 patients a month in February and March. But Mr Atkinson explained he and colleagues believe the flexible facilities, which also include recovery bays and high-tech scanning kit, has capacity to double the number of people TSS see through the doors.
"We have significantly reduced our own waiting lists. It's now around an 18 week wait, not far off where we were pre-pandemic," he said. "At the minute we are probably using, we think, only about 50 per cent of our capacity. We believe we can see around 2-3,000 more patients a year."
He also emphasised that TSS works closely with local NHS trusts - and can involve taking on contracts to carry out surgical work. The buildings - which feature air management units and high-tech ventilation - have been set up and are managed with the help of the QE Facilities company which is wholly owned by the Gateshead Health NHS Trust.
Mr Atkinson added: "The QE Facilities team have been a tremendous support to us. We couldn't have done it without them. We work with the NHS and we treat NHS patients and we were set up to add to the NHS's capacity."
TSS' medical director Hamdy Ashour is an experienced vascular surgeon who has worked in hospitals around the region. He said the eco-friendly nature of the new buildings included "many things you won't see in most hospitals", and added: "We have 10 specialities that we do here. Most of our work is surgical but we also do gastrointestinal and pain management clinics.
"The majority of NHS work is done as a day-case. I'm a surgeon by training and when I began someone would be in hospital for a week to have a varicose vein operation, now they'll be staying for a couple of hours."
Mr Ashour also explained that TSS had "extremely thorough" assessments in place to ensure that everyone referred was suitable for day-case treatment - as there are some cases where due to someone's wider medical circumstances they would be better cared for as an inpatient at a local hospital. These patients are funnelled to the correct services.
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