This week, I was delighted to see the Wycombe Elective Surgical Centre (WESC) has been nominated by the regional NHS team for the prestigious national surgical hub accreditation programme. This nomination is a testament to the operational and clinical excellence of our hospital, and the much-improved standard of healthcare available to people in Wycombe and Bucks since 2010.
This means the Wycombe Elective Surgical Centre, a specialist in diverse fields including hip and knee replacement, paediatrics, and robotic surgery, among others, has now been officially recognised as a fully accredited Surgical hub by the NHS England National Accreditation team.
The hub will serve as a major training centre, drawing surgeons and anaesthetists to our area and helping to improve standards and recruitment. The Hub will also offer both adult and paediatric surgery, which is far less common and will mean better service for children in our town.
There are only 31 of these in hubs in the country, and Wycombe will be only the second surgical centre in the South-East and the first within the Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, and Berkshire West Integrated Care System to receive this accolade.
I have long championed a high standard of care in Wycombe. My campaign for an NHS Urgent Treatment Centre at Wycombe Hospital, classed by the NHS as a Type 3 A&E, resulted in our UTC officially opening in December 2018. This allows for local people to turn-up at the centre if they need urgent, but not life-threatening, medical attention, and compliments the specialist heart and stroke units at our hospital.
This national accreditation paves the way for the WESC to access additional funding streams. These funds are crucial for the construction of a new elective care centre at Wycombe, enhancing the capability of Wycombe’s health service to provide outstanding care. Hopefully, this accreditation will serve as a gateway to more capital funding for Wycombe Hospital.
The accreditation of the Wycombe Elective Surgery Centre is a testament to the sterling efforts of Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust to improve care for everyone in the years since 2010. I am proud to have played my part in delivering a health service worthy of local people.
