Patients and local people across north west London are being asked for their views on a proposal to create a centre of excellence for inpatient orthopaedic surgery at Central Middlesex Hospital, Park Royal.
The four acute NHS trusts in north west London would like to bring together most of their routine, inpatient orthopaedic surgery – primarily hip and knee replacements – completely separated from emergency care services. This would mean that:
· patients would have faster and fairer access to surgery
· care would be of a consistently high quality, benefitting from latest best practice and research as well as clinical teams highly skilled in their procedures
· care would be provided more efficiently so that more patients could be treated at a lower cost per operation
· patients would have better outcomes and experience, with much less chance of having their operation postponed.
The acute NHS trusts also believe this approach would help attract and keep great staff who love their jobs and continue to build their skills and expertise.
A public consultation on the proposal is now open and will run until Friday 20 January 2023. You can find out more and share your views at public meetings led by senior doctors, therapists and nurses, drop-in sessions in hospitals and community centres, or by visiting the online consultation area at www.nwl-acute-provider-collaborative.nhs.uk/eoc
Dr Roger Chinn, chair of the group developing the proposal and medical director for Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, said:
“Covid-19 prompted us to work much more collaboratively across our hospitals for the benefit of patients and staff. We want to build on that approach as we tackle the long waits and other challenges we face now as we emerge from the pandemic.
“Evidence shows that when routine operations, like joint replacements, are done frequently, in a systematic way, there are improvements in both quality and efficiency. This allows patients to get better care, more quickly and more fairly. There are successful examples of where this has been done across the NHS, such as at the South West London Elective Orthopaedic Centre in Epsom.
“Our clinicians and managers have been working with GPs and other colleagues, as well as with patients and lay partners, to develop a detailed proposal for an elective orthopaedic centre for our population. We have identified Central Middlesex Hospital as our preferred location.
“We now want to share this proposal with as many patients, local residents and staff as possible to get their feedback. We know that bringing surgery together to improve waiting times and quality would mean longer travel times for some patients – we want to know if local people support this trade off and to gather more ideas on how we could make travel and access as easy as possible.”
