New multi-million-pound ward at Nottingham City Hospital to tackle waiting lists

Nottingham City Hospital, which caters for many people from the Dispatch district

A new multi-million-pound ward with 24 beds and 88 staff will be created at Nottingham City Hospital – a site that caters for patients from Hucknall and Bulwell – to help cut waiting lists.

Nottingham University Hospitals Trust has received £15m funding from the Government to build the new ward, which will be ringfenced for elective, or non-urgent, pre-planned care.

NHS trusts were able to bid for funding this year in response to the “unprecedented waiting list numbers” across the country following the pandemic.

The move is expected to mean the hospital can deliver an extra 1,670 elective surgery procedures a year for orthopaedics, breast, plastics and urology.

The trust is aiming to complete the ward by the end of March 2023.

Plans were approved unanimously by trust board members – but some concerns were raised about how the trust will staff the new ward amid ongoing problems in recruitment.

But the chairman of the board, Nick Carver, said he hoped the modern ward would have a “pull power” for new staff.

Even before the pandemic, it was “challenging” for the trust to deliver its elective work, reports prepared for the meeting said.

Mr Carver said: “We are in the middle of a global healthcare skills shortage and we certainly have one in the Midlands.

“In a strange way, I think this is precisely the right solution to that.

“At a time when healthcare workers can choose where they work, we want to have nice facilities.

“In some ways, this creates a motivation and a pull power for people who want to work in nice facilities and do the best for their patients.”

NHS documents stated: “This scheme will support the system to provide sustained elective activity to reduce waiting lists for specialities with thegreatest waits.

“If the impact of the coronavirus pandemic is not sufficiently mitigated then patients may suffer harm as a result of delayed access to treatment.”

Duncan Orme, acting chief financial officer, said the trust would work with Sherwood Forest Hospitals.

Professor John Atherton added: “The fact that we sometimes have to stop elective work to do emergency work has been dependent on the estate from time to time. We know that these patients who delay do come to harm.”