Thousands more patients across the North East and Yorkshire will benefit from NHS treatment by next year thanks to dozens of new surgical spaces, the NHS announced today (Wednesday 8 February 2023).

As part of the biggest and most ambitious catch-up plan in NHS history, an estimated 144,324 additional surgeries and outpatient appointments will be provided at 5 new surgical hubs and 5 expanded existing hubs across the region.

It comes on the one year anniversary of the Elective Recovery Plan – since then, staff have virtually eliminated two-year waits for care while December saw the overall waiting list go down for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic.

Surgical hubs are separated from emergency services in hospitals meaning tests and operations can continue in one place, largely unaffected by increased pressure in other parts of the hospital, such as covid and flu.

A new surgical hub at the Friarage Hospital has received final approval from NHS England the Department of Health Social Care and this will more than double the number of planned operations the hospital carries out each year. Building on the state-of-the-art surgical facility is set to begin in March and will see the hospital’s six existing operating theatres replaced with a modern surgical hub that will include six main operating theatres, two minor operating theatres, and a surgical admission and day hub.

Work on addressing waiting lists is already well underway in Newcastle as their new state-of-the-art day treatment centre at Newcastle Hospitals has already treated over 1500 patients since it opened in September 2022. The centre is purpose built to ensure operations and procedures are delivered efficiently, to improve the experience of patients and maximise the number of people that can be treated.

NHS National Director of Elective Recovery, Sir Jim Mackey said: “It is testament to the hard work of NHS staff that even as they’ve experienced some of the toughest months in NHS history with ‘twindemic’ pressures during winter and continued covid cases, they have made significant progress in the first year of our elective recovery plan.

“It is thanks to the hard work of staff and thanks to the fact we are a national health service that we hit the first milestone and remain on track to hit our next ambition by April– staff have taken every opportunity to bring long waits down, including through offering patients the chance to travel for their treatment.

“As part of the biggest catch-up programme in NHS history, our efforts are not stopping there and this additional capacity will ensure we continue to address the covid backlog as we increase the number of tests, operations and appointments the NHS can offer.

“As ever patients should continue to come forward for care when they need it – using 999 and A&E in an emergency and NHS 111 Online otherwise.”

The new capacity delivered by the funding so far is part of an NHS commitment to increase elective activity by 30% on pre-pandemic levels by 2024/25, including offering patients faster clinical advice, as set out in the elective recovery plan.