One hospital’s pilot to increase the number of orthopaedic elective surgeries every week, by performing four or five joint surgeries per day, is helping to drive down the NHS backlog for elective care in the North West.

Monthly regional performance data shows that in the past 10 months waiting lists have gone down by over 37,400 across North West’s hospitals.

Thanks to the huge efforts of NHS staff in the region, 31,000 fewer people are waiting 18-weeks or more for treatment.

Dr Gareth Wallis, Medical Director for System Improvement and Professional Standards, for NHS England in the North West said: “It’s fantastic to see just how hard NHS staff in the North West are working to provide this huge volume of treatment, and bring down the waiting list so people can get their life changing surgery sooner.

“We must continue to make progress on the thing that matters most to patients: improving waiting times, convenient access to care and a better experience.

“There is still a long was to go, but numbers like this show that we’re moving in the right direction to deliver on our recovery plans.”

Trusts across the region are going the extra mile to get patients into elective surgery faster, including at Blackpool Victoria Hospital where during May and June 2024, teams ran a successful pilot to test an increase in the volume of elective hip and knee surgery it could perform each week.

Following the pandemic, the Trust had been delivering, on average, two to three hip and knee replacements on a full day theatres list. But the pilot last year successfully delivered an increase in elective hip and knee cases, trialling one elective five joint replacement surgery full day theatre list per week, and more generally, four joint replacement surgeries planned on all full day elective theatre lists.

The one-month pilot last year resulted in 27 more patients than planned, having this transformative surgery.

Key to the success of the pilot was the ring fencing of Ward 16 at Blackpool Victoria Hospital for elective orthopaedic patients, to prevent cases being cancelled on the day or delaying the start of Theatre Day. There was also fantastic clinical leadership and cross-team working, and a better understanding of the interconnected steps across the full patient pathway, a pre-operatively prepared pool of patients fit for surgery and the theatre list and list order agreed and signed off by both an anaesthetist and the consultant ahead of the day.

Most importantly, patient feedback on the pilot was very positive. The experience they said, was smooth, with minimal delay and fantastic standards of pre and post operative care. Patients have given a whole-hearted thumbs up with more than 97% of patients in the pilot scoring their care ‘very good’.

More than a year later, Orthopaedics continues to maintain a dedicated 12-bed elective ward, enabling the team to provide a 6-day service for elective hip and knee surgery. With four joint replacements scheduled per full day list, this approach has helped reduce patient wait times and saw 493 more patients receive their elective joint replacement surgery in 2024/25 compared to the 2023/24 year.

In April, the national waiting list fell to its lowest level in two years – to 7.39 million, down from 7.42 million. An NHS productivity drive is also seeing hospitals across England work differently, with more evening and weekend appointments, and GPs and community services delivering more appointments.

In January 2025, the Department of Health and Social Care published the national elective reform plan, which sets out how the NHS will reform elective care services and meet the 18-week referral to treatment standard by March 2029.

ENDS