Following a phased opening at Central Middlesex Hospital in Park Royal which started in December 2023, the new North-West London Elective Orthopaedic Centre (EOC) is now fully up and running.
The EOC, which cost £9.4m, aims to perform around 4,000 orthopaedic procedures a year and to help reduce the current waiting list of more than 16,000 patients that has built up as a result of the pandemic.
The centre is an initiative of the North West London Acute Provider Collaborative, a partnership of the four NHS trusts – London North West University Healthcare, Imperial College Healthcare, Chelsea and Westminster Hospital and The Hillingdon Hospitals.
The new facility, based at London North West University Healthcare’s Central Middlesex Hospital was officially opened by David Wootton, a 72-year-old retired secondary school teacher who was the first patient to be treated at the centre during the phased opening in December 2023.
Mr Wootton had a partial knee replacement in the morning and was out of the EOC to his home in Acton later in the same day.
Matt Bartlett, medical director of the centre and an orthopaedic surgeon said: “A similar model in south London has proved very successful. It is all about providing a faster more equitable service. Orthopaedic procedures involving bones and joints make up more than a quarter of all NHS operations, and we are working hard to reduce waiting lists.”
Imperial College Healthcare consultant orthopaedic surgeon Ian Sinha said: “We’re already finding that our new approach works really well for patients and for our clinical teams – it’s enabling greater collaboration and learning which will help us improve the quality of our care as well as reduce waiting lists.”
London North West University Healthcare CEO Pippa Nightingale added: “We need to be prepared for the future. If we did nothing, the number of people waiting for orthopaedic surgery in north west London would increase by almost a fifth by 2030.
“The EOC is therefore a game-changer and will particularly benefit older patients and those from more deprived backgrounds where musculoskeletal disorders are one of the most common long-term health conditions.
“The EOC is the great result of four NHS trusts working together, across geographical boundaries, for the benefit of people right across north west London.”
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