01 / Introduction

Waiting times within the NHS have grown seemingly exponentially since the covid-19 pandemic. The British Orthopaedic Association submitted a statement to the Health and Social Care Committee in 2021 which said that “waiting lists in orthopaedics were already a concern prior to the pandemic and have been consistently climbing over recent years”.

Orthopaedics has the highest number of people waiting for an operation, and also the highest number who have been waiting more than a year. This is unsurprising given that musculoskeletal (MSK) conditions are often given the lowest priority rating – being deemed non-life-threatening – and thus can often be rescheduled as NHS resources come under pressure.

Surgical hubs are being used as part of the solution, with more planned, as they can facilitate reduced waiting times through ring-fenced resources and increased surgical capacity. This allows them to be uninterrupted by emergency traumas, therefore providing hundreds of thousands more patients with quicker access to some of the most common surgical procedures.

These hubs can house a variety of operating theatre room types, and in this cost model we have focused on an operating theatre with an innovative “barn theatre” design.

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