A plan has been put together to create a "centre of excellence" for inpatient orthopaedic surgery in Park Royal.  

Patients and residents across north-west London are being asked for their views on the plan for Central Middlesex Hospital.

Four NHS trusts - Westminster Hospital, The Hillingdon Hospitals, Imperial College and London North West University Healthcare - want to bring together most of their routine, inpatient orthopaedic surgery.  

This would be primarily hip and knee replacements, and would separate the services from emergency care.

Dr Roger Chinn, chair of the group developing the proposal and chief medical officer, Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Covid-19 prompted us to work much more collaboratively across our hospitals for the benefit of patients and staff. We want to build on that approach as we tackle the long waits and other challenges we face now as we emerge from the pandemic.

“Evidence shows that when routine operations, like joint replacements, are done frequently, in a systematic way, there are improvements in both quality and efficiency. This allows patients to get better care, more quickly and more fairly. There are successful examples of where this has been done across the NHS, such as at the South West London Elective Orthopaedic Centre in Epsom.

“Our clinicians and managers have been working with GPs and other colleagues, as well as with patients and lay partners, to develop a detailed proposal for an elective orthopaedic centre for our population. We have identified Central Middlesex Hospital as our preferred location.

“We now want to share this proposal with as many patients, local residents and staff as possible to get their feedback. We know that bringing surgery together to improve waiting times and quality would mean longer travel times for some patients – we want to know if local people support this trade off and to gather more ideas on how we could make travel and access as easy as possible.”

The trusts believe the centre would help attract and keep great staff. 

A public consultation on the proposal run until January 20. 

Public meetings and drop-in sessions will be held, and more information, and the online consultation can be found at www.nwl-acute-provider-collaborative.nhs.uk/eoc