Link: News – Banbury Today
A NEW treatment centre (TC) based in Banbury is to be used for up to 3,000 hip replacements and orthopaedic operations a year, it has emerged.
The unit, with two operating theatres, MRI scanner and 30 beds, was to have been used for a variety of routine operations but will now be devoted to orthopaedic cases.Now the world renowned Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre (NOC) in Oxford fears the plan could affect its future.
NOC chief executive Ed Macalister-Smith said: "We could have provided the additional capacity the Government sought. We are the largest orthopaedic ‘factory’ in the UK and possibly in Europe.
"The Banbury TC will affect us quite significantly but it’s difficult to hazard a guess as to how much. Local people may be encouraged to use it because it will start with shorter waiting times. But we have an outstanding national reputation for the quality of what we do.
"We have had no MRSA here over the past year and the lowest level of complaints against nursing staff of any trust in the Thames Valley by far. People have always been happy to travel this distance for the quality of excellence in surgery and care they receive."
