Helena Evans, Regional Business Unit Manager - Olympus UI, explains how Olympus are supporting healthcare providers grow elective care capacity
Growing backlogs and case for increased elective capacity
The COVID-19 pandemic had a severe impact on healthcare organisations ability to deliver elective care, resulting in delays for patients and increasing backlogs.
In response to long waiting lists, governments are announcing significant investment to tackle backlogs and are placing surgical hubs at the centre of transforming delivery of elective services. 1, 2, 3, 4
What are Surgical Hubs? 5
Surgical hubs are defined as operating theatres, recovery facilities and hospital beds that are dedicated to delivering elective care procedures. These facilities are protected from the pressures of acute and emergency care, ensuring continuity of elective surgeries. By focusing on same-day, high volume, low complexity surgeries (as defined by the Get It Right First Time programme), surgical hubs aim to reduce waiting times for operations that can be performed efficiently in one place, without the need for an overnight stay in hospital.
Olympus Endosurgery Solutions
Olympus partner with both acute and private healthcare providers to enable growth of surgical capacity. We support through offering a complete range of minimally invasive endoscopic equipment from state-of-the art imaging equipment and innovative therapeutic devices, through to fully integrated operating rooms and digital solutions, across multiple surgical specialities and procedures:
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1. Royal College of Surgeons of England. https://www.rcseng.ac.uk/news-and-events/media-centre/press-releases/rtt-waiting-times-march-2023/
2. Gov.UK. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/over-50-new-surgical-hubs-set-to-open-across-england-to-help-bust-the-covid-backlogs
3. UK Parliament. https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2023-03-23/172435
4. NHS England. https://www.england.nhs.uk/2022/02/nhs-publishes-electives-recovery-plan-to-boost-capacity-and-give-power-to-patients/
5. GIRFT. https://gettingitrightfirsttime.co.uk/hvlc/surgical-hubs