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Surgeons working weekends to clear hospital backlog
Operations at private hospitals and weekend working by surgeons are being used to help slice through "unprecedented" NHS waiting lists for procedures like knee and hip replacements in Northampton.
By next month, Northampton General Hospital has to meet the new Government waiting time target of 85 per cent of orthopaedic in-patients being treated within 18 weeks of seeing a GP.
In November the hospital was treating only 67 per cent of people in that time as referrals reached "unprecedented" levels; in some weeks double the average.
But it is understood the percentage has increased towards the all-important target every month since because of special measures undertaken by NGH.
The hospital has asked all orthopaedic surgeons to work Saturdays to help clear the backlog, with most agreeing to do so.
And it has also sent willing patients who need less complex procedures to be operated on by NGH surgeons at private hospitals like BMI Three Shires in Cliftonville.
Helen O'Shea, NGH director of operations, said: "Northamptonshire Teaching Primary Care Trust (PCT), which commissions NGH's medical services, acknowledged that we would not be able at short notice to increase our capacity to cope with the additional workload, and commissioned additional work from Three Shires Hospital in Northampton to ensure that all patients received timely care.
"In each case, around one-third of the patients offered the choice have taken up the offer.
"The number involved is a small proportion of the orthopaedic patients we treat at NGH, but it is helping to ensure that all are seen and treated quickly, and in line with the 18-weeks target.
"It also allows us to treat the patients who require more complex surgery at NGH."
The struggle to hit the orthopaedics target is a common one across the NHS and NGH recognised a shortfall of capacity in the autumn.
The hospital said the cost of the operations is the same wherever they are carried out because of the national 'payment by results' tariff which applies to all NHS patients.
It added that the special arrangements to boost the waiting times target would probably end by April.
nick.spoors@northantsnews.co.uk< /a
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