Hopes that new Wigan operating theatre will slash waiting lists

The brand new facility is set to be built at Wrightington, boosting Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust’s (WWL) ability to cut surgery delays and reinforce the centre’s status as a regional orthopaedic hub.

The new theatre will address the need to build capacity on elective sites - a key strategy for the NHS in tackling long waits for surgery.

With the existing bay of recovery beds set to be increased from three to five, and housed in a purpose-built new area, the expansion of capacity at Wrightington Hospital will also reduce pressure on theatre and bed capacity at Wigan Infirmary.

The ambition is for around 1,200 high-volume, low complexity orthopaedic procedures per year to be carried out at the new facility.

Orthopaedics is the largest volume elective specialty in Greater Manchester, so bosses say this additional capacity will aid the reduction of NHS waiting lists across the region.

Funding of the £6.1m build is being provided by the NHS England Targeted Investment Funds (TIF) programme, which is a national initiative targeted towards increasing NHS elective and diagnostic capacity in response to the rising elective backlogs resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic.

WWL’s director of strategy and planning, Richard Mundon, said: “I am delighted that we have been able to attract this level of external investment to provide more of the excellent orthopaedic services that thousands of patients already receive every year at Wrightington.

“The regional and national endorsement of this scheme is reinforcement of the hospital’s status as a regional orthopaedic hub and the development aligns neatly with our Trust strategy and future development plans for the site.”

Subject to planning permission, construction on the new theatre is expected to start early in the new year and will be operational by autumn 2024.

The news comes only weeks after it was revealed that a state-of-the-art training academy for surgeons from across the UK and abroad could also be built at Wrightington.

A planning application was submitted for the new building at the hospital to replace the existing surgical training academy in Grade II-listed Wrightington Hall.

The new single-storey academy would have a cadaveric suite – for anatomy classes – and a host of other facilities.

A design and access statement read: “The trust has the ambition to provide internationally renowned research and education facilities at Wrightington, but the current facilities are not of sufficient size or in optimum condition to fulfil this ambition.

“The vision for a surgical training academy is to provide state-of-the-art, life-long, learning facilities for surgeons and future surgeons across the UK and internationally, space for research and space for innovative testing of new approaches to care and implants.

“The proposed solution is a purpose-built facility focusing on a cadaveric suite, with digital systems that can provide international education.”

Two empty single-storey buildings – known as the John Charnley Research Centre and Synexus – would be demolished if the plans were approved.