Cancelled operations nightmare to end as surgery patients to begin getting buses from New Cross to Cannock
The cancelled operations nightmare at New Cross Hospital will end from today, health bosses have proclaimed as patients began getting treated in Staffordshire.
Patients were this morning getting free buses from New Cross to Cannock for surgery as radical multi-million pound takeover plans finally came to fruition.
More than 650 operations were cancelled at the Wednesfield-based hospital in 2007 - more than at any Black Country or Staffordshire hospital.
But with surgery being moved to Cannock from today chiefs say they will end the misery caused to thousands patients, who have seen their operations cancelled at the last minute in recent years.
A £23million cash injection at Cannock Chase Hospital has funded five orthopaedic operating theatres, with a team of more than 20 surgeons performing non-emergency surgery.
Orthopaedics involves hip, knee, foot, ankle and joint replacement surgeries.
And from November this year a further two operating theatres will also open at the hospital.
Cancer referrals are also being transferred to Cannock as bosses free up vital space at New Cross to cope with the mountain of emergency work which has seen its A&E unit besieged with patients.
Helen Read, trauma and orthopaedics boss at the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust, said: "From now on the Cannock Chase unit is purely for elective orthopaedic cases so there will be no shortage of beds and no risk of operations being cancelled.
"This is a fantastic development which will mean no one scheduled for elective orthopaedic surgery will need to worry about their operation being cancelled at the last minute because of a lack of beds.
"The Cannock Chase unit will only deal with elective surgery cases while all trauma and emergency surgery will be carried out at New Cross Hospital."
It comes after the dissolution of Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust and the transfer to the trust that runs New Cross and the University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust (UHNM) of Cannock Chase Hospital and the County Hospital (formerly Stafford Hospital).
The services involved are emergency and inpatient gynaecological surgery, emergency and inpatient general surgery including breast, colorectal and upper and lower gastrointestinal tract surgery, trauma surgery and two week wait cancer referrals.
Four gynaecology and general surgery consultants are also moving to Cannock.
All two week wait cancer referral outpatients within the South Staffordshire and Cannock Chase Clinical Commissioning Group areas will become the responsibility of New Cross bosses.
Letters have been sent to GPs informing them of the changes.
