Hospitals in Greater Manchester set to expand surgical hubs to help reduce waiting lists

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Rochdale Infirmary Outpatients Department

Rochdale Infirmary is one of four hospitals in Greater Manchester that will receive funding to expand its services and treat more people to help bring waiting lists down.

Approximately 1 in 6 people living in Greater Manchester are waiting for planned hospital care and surgical hubs are one of the initiatives being used to manage planned care waiting list backlogs.

Located on existing hospital sites, surgical hubs bring together skills and expertise of staff under one roof. They will focus mainly on providing high volume low complexity surgery and will help to reduce waiting times for some of the most common procedures.

The additional funding will be used to increase theatre and diagnostic services at Rochdale Infirmary, Leigh Infirmary and Trafford General Hospital. This will create new jobs and enable more procedures to be undertaken.

The Christie NHS Foundation Trust has also received funding to increase ward capacity for patients across Greater Manchester requiring complex cancer surgery.

Patients in Greater Manchester are already benefitting from treatment at surgical hubs for orthopaedics and children’s surgery. Over 1,000 patients in Greater Manchester have been treated at local orthopaedic surgical hubs.

Dr Manisha Kumar, chief medical officer of NHS Greater Manchester Integrated Care said: “Staff across the NHS are working hard to treat people as quickly as possible. Surgical hubs are an example of how we are innovating and increasing the number of procedures that can be done to reduce waiting times. In Greater Manchester we have already made progress in tackling the longest waiting lists and the investment will help us treat more patients in Greater Manchester over the next three years.”

Dr John Patterson, co-chair of the Greater Manchester elective care reform, GP and senior system clinical lead in Oldham, said: “Surgical hubs are a vital part of our plan to manage waiting list backlogs and I am pleased that hospitals in Greater Manchester will benefit from extra investment to expand these services. 

“Whilst we are making progress, unfortunately, long waits for hospital treatment will likely be with us for some time. We understand this will be a worrying time for anyone waiting for treatment and I’d encourage people to visit www.whileyouwait.org.uk for more information and advice on how to stay well.”

Dr Michael Gregory, regional medical director, NHS England North West said: “Surgical hubs are a vital part of plans to recover elective services across the North West and nationally. This will be a welcome boost in helping us to further tackle the Covid-19 backlogs that have inevitably built up over the pandemic.

“NHS staff continue to go the extra mile to make sure our patients are getting the care they need.  We know there are significant numbers of patients still waiting to be seen and we will continue to work hard to reduce the time people are waiting for care.”