As part of the UK’s largest healthcare charity, Nuffield Health Bournemouth Hospital has played a huge role in the past 18 months to support the University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust to help reduce wait times and free up capacity to combat the coronavirus outbreak. The team at the hospital has provided care to more than 2,500 local NHS patients awaiting surgery which has included cancer patients and those requiring orthopaedic, urology, ear, nose and throat (ENT) and maxillofacial and general surgery. The hospital has also supported with diagnostics and outpatient care.

David McNair, hospital director at Nuffield Health Bournemouth Hospital, said: “It has been a challenging time for all and we are committed to supporting our community and continuing our care for NHS patients, working closely with the University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust across a number of specialties, to relieve the pressures still faced. Alongside our continued NHS support, we are pleased to offer private patients access to our range of hospital services including orthopaedics, ophthalmology, gynaecology and urology. 

“To increase access and availability to our private services, we are delighted to welcome seven more highly experienced medical professionals to our consultant network. At Nuffield Health we’re committed to developing high standards of clinical care and we know that the way to achieve this is through close partnership with our consultants. The addition of these new consultants to our network have come about following the vital work each undertook on behalf of the NHS at our Lansdowne site during the height of the pandemic.”

The consultants given practising privileges at the hospital specialise in orthopaedics, paediatric orthopaedics, cardiology and urology. 

Orthopaedic surgery has been one of the most severely affected types of surgery nationally, with thousands of patients on the waiting list for more than a year, and Mr Michael Kent is one of two consultant orthopaedic surgeons joining the Nuffield Health Bournemouth Hospital team.  

Mr Kent, who specialises in primary hip and knee replacements, revision hip replacements and is a national leader in day case joint replacement, said: "Through my work in the NHS and with Nuffield Health we are striving to get patients safely through their surgeries and back home quickly with tried and tested rapid recovery pathways. It's an honour to have be given practising privileges at the hospital enabling us to tackle the enormous waiting list backlog created by the pandemic.”