PLANS for a new £18 million day case surgical unit at St Luke’s Hospital will help tackle and reduce the backlog of patients waiting for surgery in Bradford.

The new state-of-the-art day case unit will be separate to Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust’s main acute site at Bradford Royal Infirmary (BRI) and will solely deliver planned surgery. This means it will provide additional resilience to the NHS in Bradford and help future-proof this service for local patients.

It is planned to deliver up to 5,760 operations a year and, in addition, because the majority of day cases will move to St Luke’s, this will free up capacity for an additional 1,200 operations a year for normal planned surgery and day case surgery at BRI.

It will help tackle local health inequalities while promoting the best outcomes for patients and providing new employment opportunities for local people.

A full planning application to build the new facility has been submitted to Bradford Council.

The funding for the new day case theatres will be provided from NHS England’s Targeted Investment Fund (TIF).

Located on the existing St Luke’s site, the unit, which is due to be operational in April 2024, will bring together skills and expertise of staff under one roof – reducing waiting times for some of the most common procedures.

It will focus mainly on providing high volume, low complexity surgery including trauma and orthopaedics, general surgery, urology, gynaecology, plastic surgery and colorectal surgery.

These operations can be performed quickly and effectively in one place, improving quality and efficiency which will mean patients have shorter waits for surgery, will be more likely to go home on the same day.

As the day case unit, made up of two theatres running six days a week, is separate from emergency services, surgical beds are kept free for patients waiting for planned operations, reducing the risk of short-notice cancellations and improving infection control.

Chief Operating Officer and Deputy Chief Executive at Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Saj Azeb, said: “This represents a big milestone and it’s an exciting moment for us all.

“It is incredibly important to make sure that local people are able to get surgery when they need it and the unit will help us deliver our vision of providing outstanding care for our communities across Bradford.

“Improving quality and efficiency will mean patients have shorter waits for surgery, leading to improved health, quality of life and ability to get back to daily activities and work.”