Caithness General Hospital in Wick to help out with day surgery backlog at Raigmore
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
Patients waiting for surgery at Raigmore Hospital could be offered a procedure at Wick in a bid to reduce waiting times.
NHS Highland is offering patients surgery in other locations across the organisation including at Caithness General Hospital, Belford Hospital in Fort William and Lorn and Islands Hospital, Oban.
A spokeswoman said that they were working through a backlog of high priority cancer and urgent operations that has built up as a result of the Covid pandemic, meaning that waiting times for some day case surgical procedures at Raigmore Hospital are much longer than they would like.
To help reduce waiting times, other hospital sites within NHS Highland will be offered as an option to patients in order to treat them more quickly. However, the option is not available to all specialities and procedures.
Dr Boyd Peters, medical director for NHS Highland, said: “We have already been offering newly referred patients a choice of hospital for their surgical procedure and will now be writing to patients who are already waiting for a procedure at Raigmore to also offer them that same opportunity.
“All of our hospitals offer the same high levels of care and treatment for these procedures, and some will have much shorter waiting times than Raigmore.
“We know some people will have concerns about travelling for surgery but I would like to reassure everyone that a clinical assessment will take place before any change of hospital. We will also offer information about our travel expenses policy, to help with the costs of travel and accommodation.”
