We were delighted to welcome NHS England colleagues to King George Hospital for our Elective Surgical Hub accreditation visit on Tuesday (7 February).

Our hub was one of the first across the country to participate in a national accreditation scheme.

The national team were given a tour of the hub and they spoke to staff about the work we’re doing across the surgical division to drive our waiting lists down.

Set up during the pandemic to reduce backlogs, it focuses on six specialities, which makes up 70 per cent of our waiting lists – general surgery, ear, nose and throat, trauma and orthopaedics, ophthalmology, urology, and gynaecology.

The accreditation team visited some of the specialities including gynaecology, trauma and orthopaedics and urology.

Elena Bechberger, National Programme Director, said: “It was such a delight visiting the BHRUT Elective Surgical Hub, representing the London region as part of a new national pilot hub accreditation scheme. We’ve been really impressed by what we’ve seen here, the hub is really pushing boundaries.”

In a Q&A session with clinicians and trainee staff, the team were praised for their ‘passion’ and thanked for their ‘incredible work’.

Stella Vig, National Clinical Director for Elective Care, said: “It’s been an incredible visit, there’s a real culture of innovation and improvement here. My huge thanks to all the NHS staff at BHRUT for all their amazing achievements and hard work in making this happen. This is a phenomenal facility for patients who are waiting for care.”

Thangadorai Amalesh, Divisional Director of surgery at BHRUT, said: “Our surgical hub has really transformed how we care for patients, reducing the time they wait for their operation.

“We carried put more than 7,600 surgeries last year and got the number of those waiting more than two years for treatment to zero. This focus on reducing long waits wouldn’t have been possible without our hub – and its expansion will allow us to continue to increase the number of operations we carry out each day.”

Fiona Wheeler, Chief Operating Officer (Planned Care) at our Trust, added: “It was a fabulous day in the Elective Hub at King George Hospital with the national team, showcasing all the amazing work we do to improve the care we provide for our patients waiting for planned care procedures.”

Following this visit, a panel will meet before the official accreditation takes place in March. After this, it is hoped the scheme will be rolled out to surgical hubs across the country.

Accreditation will recognise our Trust as one of the top performing in the country for high volume, low complexity surgery – getting patients the treatments they need quicker. Patients will also benefit from two new theatres, allowing us to complete up to 90 extra operations a week.

Find out more about all the work we’re doing to reduce our waiting lists.