NEW temporary theatres are to be installed at Wharfedale Hospital in a bid to tackle a backlog of patients waiting for treatment.

Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust has applied for planning permission to install two temporary theatres at the hospital in Newall Carr Road, Otley, as part of its elective care hubs programme.

Elective care hubs aim to create Covid-free sites, away from emergency care, which provide safe spaces to help manage people who need elective procedures. The trust's first such hub is being developed at Wharfedale Hospital.

Subject to all necessary approvals, the existing ward at Wharfedale would be expanded to be able to provide care overnight, up to seven days a week. The mobile theatres will begin to be installed in February, subject to approval, to provide additional theatre capacity to care for 15 to 18 patients a week requiring foot, ankle and upper limb procedures.

Clare Smith, Chief Operating Officer at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “As with all NHS trusts, Covid-19 has presented us with some significant challenges around how we provide care for all of our patients, including elective care patients who have been waiting for the treatments. We’ve already put in place a number of significant measures to meet this need including the development of Same Day Emergency Care, the Surgical Ambulatory Care centre, and expanding our theatres capacity on our main hospital sites with an additional three theatres.

“As part of our strategic efforts to respond to the new challenges of providing the best possible, timely care while also caring for patients with Covid-19, we are developing an Elective Care Hubs Programme. This will be a substantial piece of work which will help us to tackle the backlog, and will also provide a sustainable solution longer term for the challenges of balancing emergency and elective surgery. Overall, this will mean shorter waiting times for our patients and a better patient experience – with more confidence that their procedure will go ahead when planned.

“These Hubs will be specialist and focused on patient pathways where planned care can confidently continue all year round. They will enable us to provide increased resilience for our planned procedures and minimise the risk of planned care being cancelled when we have increased numbers of patients with Covid-19 or larger admission numbers coming in through our Emergency Departments. This also reduces the uncertainty for patients around last-minute cancellations.”