Hampshire’s new elective hub has now been given the green light and building work at the Royal Hampshire County Hospital (RHCH) in Winchester will now begin.
The new elective hub will provide more capacity and allow more operations to take place therefore improving access to elective surgery and reducing the elective backlog across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.
The plans for the elective hub were approved at the Hampshire Hospitals Foundation Trust (HHFT) board meeting on Thursday 15th February.
Adults across Hampshire and Isle of Wight who require operations for orthopaedics (such as hip and knee replacements) will be eligible to attend the new elective hub. Operations taking place at the hub would be in addition to surgery already taking place at our hospitals across Hampshire & the Isle of Wight. Initially patients in Southampton and Hampshire, will be offered the choice of having their operation at either their local hospital or the hub. In the future patients from Portsmouth and on the Isle of Wight may also be given the same opportunity.
The hub will deliver an additional 2,400 procedures each year, will operate six days a week with consultants from both University Hospital Southampton and Hampshire Hospitals Foundation Trust operating on their patients in the Hub.
Julie Maskery, Strategic Projects Director at Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said: “The elective hub will provide a new way of working for orthopaedic surgery and we are delighted that we have had the final approval for the elective hub as it will benefit many people across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.
“The building work for the hub will involve refurbishing a floor within the Burrell building in the Royal Hampshire County Hospital to create two theatres and the associated inpatient facilities. The elective hub is due to open in April 2025 and we look forward to welcoming our first patients.”
The enabling work is already underway and the programme is collaborating with the contractor Integrated Health Projects (IHP) and AD Architects to develop the building specification.
At the same time as building the new elective hub, Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust will also be commencing the construction of a new orthopaedic outpatient facility at the Royal Hampshire County Hospital.
Scheduled to open in the summer 2025, this is part of the Trust’s ongoing commitment and investment into services in Winchester.
The new department will provide eight outpatient rooms; a co-located plain film x-ray service with an adjacent treatment room; and four fracture clinic assessment booths with an adjacent two bay plaster room. Activities delivered in the Orthopaedic Outpatient Facility will include:
- Specialist advice and support, clinical consultation, diagnosis, and treatment planning and delivery for orthopaedic patients.
- Therapy consultation, diagnosis and treatment in conjunction with a multi-disciplinary Allied Health team, including physiotherapy, occupational therapy and dietetics.
- Application and removal of plaster casts.
By co-locating services and increasing the footprint of clinic rooms, the Trust will significantly reduce how long patients have to wait for an elective outpatient appointment. Once up and running, they aim to reduce the average wait from 9 weeks currently to below 5 weeks for patients to be seen for a first appointment following a referral to the service.
The “one-stop” model will also reduce the number of follow-up appointments by delivering the care patients need in just one appointment, with teams working side by side.
Dr Lara Alloway, Chief Medical Officer for NHS Hampshire and Isle of Wight said: “These two developments will provide a significant benefit to our residents and is a positive step forward in reducing our backlog for elective surgeries. Waits for orthopaedic surgery is one of the biggest challenges across Hampshire, so by using the hub to focus on our orthopaedic patients, we can work in partnership to reduce the waiting times for surgery.
“We are working hard to improve our services and we are confident that the elective hub and the new orthopaedic outpatient facility will play a significant role in achieving this.”
The new elective hub and the orthopaedic outpatient facility will continue to run from the Royal County Hampshire Hospital in Winchester, in all three options that are being discussed in the ongoing Hampshire Together consultation. They will therefore benefit from the planned future investment in the Royal Hampshire County Hospital. Further information about the new hospital programme is available here: https://www.hampshiretogether.nhs.uk/