Trusts team up for weekend surgery drive to cut paediatric waiting times

Three acute trusts have teamed up to carry out surgical procedures on hundreds of children over several weekends as part of plans to tackle waiting lists in the region.

Trusts across the Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire Integrated Care System are pooling resources to tackle long waits in paediatric oral and ear, nose and throat services.

The initiative began on the April bank holiday weekend. Thirty-eight of the longest waiters from Royal United Hospitals Bath Foundation Trust, who had been waiting up to 74 weeks for oral surgery, were treated by Salisbury FT. The other trust involved in the plans is Great Western Hospitals FT. 

More than 400 children are expected to be treated over a series of joint surgery weekends. The next, which will also focus on both oral and ENT surgery, will take place over the early May bank holiday. 

RUH’s chief executive Cara Charles-Barks told HSJ the joint surgery plans will have a “huge impact” on the region’s elective waiting lists.

Read full story (paywalled)

Source: HSJ, 21 April 2021