 The Heart Hospital has beds lying empty |
A London hospital claims it could single-handedly cut months off waiting times for heart operations across England. Managers at University College London NHS Trust say they have enough empty beds to take thousands more patients.
Ministers say they are considering the offer, which would cut maximum waiting times for heart ops to three months.
Since last year, anyone waiting longer than six months can choose to have faster treatment elsewhere.
Figures from the Department of Health show that the vast majority of patients are treated within six months - it does not expect to reach the three-month until March 2005.
However, while some hospitals now have empty beds, others are continuing to struggle to treat all patients within six months. Private hospital
UCLH took over the privately-owned Heart Hospital in central London in 2001 to help it cut waiting times for heart surgery. The hospital was bought by the Department of Health at a cost of �27m.
Now nobody waits longer than six months.
But the scheme has been so successful that many beds earmarked for heart patients are now lying empty.
Trust chief executive Robert Naylor said he has put a bid in to the Department of Health to treat patients from across the country.
"We are not just chopping off the tail of the waiting list, we are hitting the targets," he told the magazine Health Service Journal.
"It has taken us all by surprise and we are reflecting on how it happened. The Heart Hospital has made a contribution and now we have spare capacity.
"As the money to hit waiting-list targets is ring-fenced, we have put a proposal to the centre to use The Heart Hospital to treat the remaining three and six month waiters from across the country or use the spare capacity for something else.
"We could switch to vascular surgery and concentrate on varicose veins. The successes we have seen do raise questions about the ability of the NHS to refocus its capacity.
"The fact the NHS could eliminate the waiting list for cardiac services would be an important political prize."
The Department of Health said it would need to discuss the proposal with local health officials in other parts of the country.
"This is an interesting proposal and we are looking at it," a spokeswoman said.
"But it would not be a decision for the department to take on its own as we would need to involve commissioners from the strategic health authorities and primary care trusts, who have responsibility for commissioning alternative providers as part of the patient choice scheme."
One-Minute World News 
News services
E-mail this to a friend 
Printable version 
This is an interesting proposal and we are looking at it 
