New Health Secretary, Steve Barclay, has announced plans to create more than 50 new surgical hubs across England.

The facilities, which will be located on existing hospital sites, will bring skills and expertise of staff together under one roof – reducing waiting times for some of the most-common procedures such as cataract surgeries and hip replacements.

These operations can be performed quickly and effectively in one place, and improving quality and efficiency will mean patients have shorter waits for surgery, will be more likely to go home on the same day, and will be less likely to need additional treatment after surgery.

Barclay said the hubs will provide at least 100 more operating theatres and over 1,000 beds and will deliver almost two million extra routine operations to reduce waiting lists over the next three years, backed by £1.5billion in government funding.

This breaks down to over 200,000 extra procedures in 2022-2023, over 700,000 extra procedures in 2023-2024, and one1 million extra procedures by 2024-2025.

High volume, low complexity

They will focus mainly on providing high-volume, low-complexity surgery, as previously recommended by the Royal College of Surgeons of England, with particular emphasis on ophthalmology, general surgery, trauma and orthopaedics, gynaecology, ear nose and throat, and urology.

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

And, as the hubs are separated from emergency services, surgical beds are kept free for patients waiting for planned operations, reducing the risk of short-notice cancellations and improving infection control.

Barclay said: “In order to bust the COVID-19 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.”

A waiting game

NHS chief executive, Amanda Pritchard, added: “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 hubs will also help address variation in performance between trusts, as they are required to meet national standards on numbers of operations, the full use of theatre facilities, and ensuring patients are discharged on the same day as their operation.

All of this will help to drive up performance across the country.

Reducing inequalities

The Government has worked with the NHS to identify which areas will benefit most from the hubs and the selection process has been clinically led and aims to ensure the new hubs are connected to the right local services – such as acute hospital sites – and tackle local healthcare inequalities while promoting the best outcomes for patients and delivering value for taxpayers.

So far, locations for 20 new, or expanded, hubs have already been confirmed, and bids for the remaining sites are set to be considered over the coming weeks and months as more business cases are received to determine the new sites meet design standards.

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

The hub approach has already been proven to reduce pressure at a number of hospitals across the country.

For example, the South West London Elective Orthopaedic Centre, which contains five state-of-the-art operating theatres and accepts patients from all over the UK, performs approximately 5,200 procedures a year, 3,000 of which are joint replacements.

And another hub at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has increased surgical capacity by 25%, with improvement plans now in place to significantly reduce cancellations.

Care closer to home

To underpin the revival of services following the COVID pandemic, the Government has committed £5.9billion in capital investment in the coming years.

Along with surgical hubs, the NHS is changing the way diagnostic services are delivered by opening over 90 community diagnostic centres across the country in locations such as football stadiums and shopping centres.

These have already delivered over 1.6 million checks, tests, and scans, offering patients a range of healthcare services closer to home. By 2025, up to 160 will be up and running.