Diagnosis and Surgery: Yorkshire and the Humber
(asked on 27th January 2025) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to paragraph 4.5 of the Autumn Budget 2024, how many new (a) surgical hubs and (b) diagnostic scanners will be located in Yorkshire.
The Elective Reform Plan, published in January 2025, sets out the productivity and reform efforts needed to return to the 18-week Referral to Treatment constitutional standard by March 2029. The standard has not been met consistently since September 2015.
Surgical hubs offer productive solutions by focusing on providing high volume low complexity surgery, and will contribute to providing the surgical capacity needed to return to the constitutional standard. There are 112 elective surgical hubs operational across England as of December 2024. There are 14 surgical hubs already operational in the North East and Yorkshire region, and three more are planned to open. These three are:
- the Dewsbury and District Hospital Combined Elective Centre in Dewsbury;
- the St Luke's Hospital Day Case Unit in Bradford; and
- the Castle Hill Hospital Elective Hub in Cottingham.
The Department cannot yet confirm the location of all the new surgical hubs and diagnostic scanners from the capital investment announced in the Autumn Statement. NHS England is working with local National Health Service systems to identify the most appropriate locations for investments, including new surgical hubs and diagnostic scanners. Details will be set out at the earliest opportunity.
As detailed in the 2025/26 capital guidance, NHS England has provided systems with indicative allocations based on a combination of population-weighted shares and national and regional intelligence on where investment is needed and if it can be delivered within 2025/26. These allocations include funding for additional surgical hubs, diagnostic scanning capacity, urgent treatment centres co-located with emergency departments, and same day emergency care provision in those systems prioritised for these investments by national teams.