Patient figures give hospital a real tonic (From The Bolton News)

Patient figures give hospital a real tonic

A NORTH West hospital which specialises in joint replacement surgery is attracting more and more patients from the Bolton area.

Wrightington Hospital, near Wigan is fast becoming the doctors' and patients' choice and growing all the time. Wigan and Bolton Health Authority has the largest single contract with the hospital.

And over the past four and a half years, its income has rocketed from a steady £12.5 million to more than £17 million.

Matthew Burch, Commercial Director said: "In effect this is more money being paid to us, to perform more work on patients not only from within the Wigan and South Lancs area but from many others, including Bolton, too."

Wrightington is just one of six highly specialised orthopaedic hospitals in the country and has an international reputation in the field of joint replacement surgery.

There are 12 surgeons, four operating theatres and it is by far the biggest orthopaedic set up in the whole of the North West region.

Although there is a private wing at Wrightington, the vast majority of the work carried out is funded by the NHS.

Its reputation was founded in the 1960s with the development of the hip replacement, but over the years it has developed replacement surgery to knees, shoulders, wrists and elbows and intricate hand surgery too.

Indeed it's reckoned that half of all the ankle replacements throughout the whole of the UK were performed at Wrightington.

And, under the expert professionalism of Professor John Stanley many complex, procedures to hands are performed.

Although some patients can wait up to 18 months for an appointment, much of the work done at Wrightington is classed as urgent and therefore many patients are treated within a matter of months, latest figures suggest one third of patients were seen within three months.

At present, there are complex negotiations ongoing between Wigan and Bolton Health Authority and Wrightington involving increasing the hospital's capacity.

This will mean more patients from throughout the area can be treated by the team, but first Wrightington has to secure a major investment from the health authority.

Health

Mr Burch added: "The big issue facing us at the moment is that involving the health authority is that if Billinge is to close and all services move on to the Albert/Edward site, some services may be orthopaedic work will move out.

"We currently perform much of Chorley's orthopaedic work and the arrangement where funds for this work are paid to us works very well indeed."

If such an investment is secured it is expected Wrightington will grow still further and its reputation will grow along the way.

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