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Treatment Centres: Delivering Faster, Quality Care and Choice for NHS Patients

  • Document type:
    Publication
  • Author:
    Department of Health
  • Published date:
    7 January 2005
  • Primary audience:
    Professionals
  • Product number:
    266255
  • Gateway reference:
    4344
  • Pages:
    20
  • Copyright holder:
    Crown

This report outlines progress made by the Treatment Centre programme to date.

Introduction

1. In April 2002, the Government announced unprecedented investment in the NHS in England in order to refocus health services on the needs of the patient and dramatically reduce the time that patients wait for treatment.

2. One of the ways in which these objectives are being met is through new Treatment Centres, some run by the NHS and some by Independent Sector (IS) providers. This report:

  • takes stock of achievements to date; and
  • sets out the further impact that Treatment Centres are expected to have over the next year and beyond, as the NHS introduces patient choice for hospital treatment and moves closer to making waiting lists a thing of the past.

3. Treatment Centres are streamlined units that provide safe, fast pre-booked surgery and diagnostic tests for patients. They often, though not exclusively, concentrate on procedures with the highest historic waiting times for treatment, for instance in orthopaedics and ophthalmology.

4. The aims of the Treatment Centre programme are to:

  • help provide the extra capacity needed to deliver swift access to treatment for NHS patients;
  • spearhead diversity and choice in clinical services for NHS patients;
  • stimulate innovative models of service delivery and drive up productivity.

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