Written question WQ94470
- Asked by
- Gareth DaviesConservative
- To be answered by
- Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care
- Tabled
- Due
- Answered
- Time to answer
- 6 days
Question
How is the Welsh Government working with health boards to ensure a balance between elective planned surgeries being performed according to schedule, and urgent trauma cases?
Answer
Answered by Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care
It is the responsibility of health boards to plan and deliver the services to meet the needs of their local populations. This includes the need to plan sufficient operating sessions to deliver both elective and emergency cases. Many hospitals have dedicated trauma theatres separate to elective theatres.
Wales does not have dedicated surgical hubs but there are a number of sites dedicated to the provision of protected planned care treatment capacity. Investment has been made by Welsh Government to support dedicated elective capacity as follows:
• Neath Port Talbot Hospital has been redesigned to centralise elective orthopaedic capacity in Swansea Bay University Health Board with additional theatres and wards.
• Hywel Dda University Health Board has dedicated day case theatres at Prince Phillip Hospital to increase capacity for day case treatments.
• Cardiff and Vale University Health Board opened two new endoscopy theatres in February, providing additional capacity to the unit’s existing four theatres in University Hospital Llandough.
• Cardiff and Vale University Health Board has developed plans for a high-volume, low-complexity surgical hub at University Hospital Llandough. Eight sessions a week are being provided and the ward will be fully open at the end of November providing capacity for more than 3,000 additional procedures a year.
• The endoscopy suite at Royal Gwent Hospital opened in November 2023 and includes four operating theatres and a range of treatment rooms.
• As part of £280m upgrade of Prince Charles Hospital, in Merthyr Tydfil, there are now three new endoscopy rooms and a custom-built orthodontic, restorative and maxillofacial unit. Work, due to conclude in autumn 2026, includes a full suite of theatres, a day surgery unit, major updates to the radiology and pathology departments and the new critical care unit.
• Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board has purchased a site in Llantrisant to develop a regional diagnostic and treatment centre for South East Wales.
• Four orthopaedic theatres in Llandudno.
The NHS Executive is leading an all-Wales theatre programme to improve theatre efficiency and share best practice. This includes theatre scheduling and maximising the use of theatres.