The successful partnership between the NHS and the independent healthcare sector was clearly demonstrated to Minister for NHS Delivery, Lord Warner, when he officially opened the newly built NHS Treatment Centre at Barlborough near Chesterfield in October 2005.
Since opening its doors to the public in the summer of 2005, the £9 million state-of-the-art Centre, run by the partnership Health Group, has helped to reduce waiting times for orthopaedic and arthroscopic procedures throughout Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire and South Yorkshire.
The Centre is enabling early provision and access for Trent and South Yorkshire patients to the Government’s “Choice” initiative with over 4,250 cases being treated so far as part of the interim and Partnership Health Group contracts.
Lord Warner was treated to a tour of the two storey facility, providing 36 ward beds, four high dependency beds; physiotherapy gymnasium; operating theatres and recovery areas; an outpatient department; in-house pathology; a pharmacy and the facility’s own diagnostic imaging department.
The Treatment Centre is managed to clinical governance standards developed in partnership between the NHS and PHG, with consistently good outcomes being achieved. A range of clinical innovations have been introduced at the unit including blood conservation, reducing the need for blood donations across the regions.
