PATIENTS in Poole waiting more than three months for surgery may have their treatment done at a private hospital under a new scheme aimed at cutting waiting lists.

Dorset and Somerset Strategic Health Authority has agreed three contacts with the Nuffield Hospitals for 2004/5 which will see around 450 surgical procedures for Poole Hospital being done privately.

Health authority bosses hope that buying the private sector capacity, which is costing £575,000 - the same as if the procedures were done on the NHS - will help the trust achieve a maximum three-month wait for elective treatment by March 2005, in line with government targets.

It is not the first time such an arrangement has been made in Poole. In June the hospital entered into an agreement with the Harbour Hospital to undertake 50 operations in a bid to bring the number of people waiting more than six months down to zero.

The procedures are set to include those in general surgery; ear, nose and throat; oral surgery; and gynaecology. They will all be funded by the health authority.

Patients will be selected for treatment at the Nuffield by consultants in Poole and those deemed suitable for the scheme will have their treatment within 10 weeks of the Nuffield receiving the referral and their notes.

Bosses hope the scheme will enable the hospital to cope with winter pressures.

They have also suspended all routine surgery procedures for the first three weeks of January, leaving this time for emergency admissions and day case work only, which, it is hoped, will also lower the number of cancellations being made in the early part of the year.

Poole Hospital NHS Trust chief executive Lloyd Adams said: "The intention is to get down to as few patients as possible by the end of the calendar year. It will make a really dramatic impact on patients waiting more than three months."

The trust currently has no patients waiting more than six months for treatment and no outpatients waiting more than 13 weeks for a first appointment.

First published: September 29