NHS Forth Valley: Delays to new ward being built to reduce waiting times for hip and knee surgery

The 30-bed ward at Forth Valley Royal Hospital will be part of a network of new treatment centres developed across NHS Scotland to increase capacity and reduce waiting times.

However, earlier this year during a review by NHS Scotland Assure several areas of concern around ventilation, fire safety and flooding were highlighted.

But the issues only came to light when a report was published in October and NHS Forth Valley says it is making “good progress” remedying the problems.

The first building components for the new National Treatment Centre arrived at the Larbert site in October last year. Pic: Michael Gillen

The Forth Valley National Treatment Centre (NTC), part of a nationwide plan to reduce a backlog of knee and hip operations, was originally scheduled to open last year.

However, work eventually started in June 2022 but since then the project has faced further delays.

NHS Assure inspectors found two significant and 19 major issues with the project, including a lack of detail within the fire strategy, non-compliance with some NHS guidance and a lack of detail on pre-commissioning checks.

Set up to monitor the quality, safety and running of health board construction projects, NHS Assure said if the issues were not addressed they could "potentially compromise the safety of patients and staff".

Artist impression of new National Treatment Centre inpatient ward at Forth Valley Royal Hospital in Larbert. Image: Contributed

An issue with water getting into the site that resulted in damage and mould growth on internal walls was also spotted during one of the inspections.

Without a satisfactory NHS Assure review, new health facilities cannot open to the public.

FVRH’s ward will be part of a network of NTCs across Scotland which were designed to deliver at least 40,000 additional procedures per year by 2026.

However, like the Forth Valley centre many are facing cost overruns and delays.

When the new ward opens, all of its patients will be from other health boards which have longer orthopaedic waiting times than NHS Forth Valley.

It will not be open to local patients until "waiting times across Scotland are equalised", according to the NHS Assure report.

The new centre is part of a major national investment that has also funded the opening of two additional operating theatres at FVRH, bringing the total number to 16, and the installation of a second state-of-the-art MRI scanner at the Larbert hospital.

However, there is still no estimated date when the work on the new NTC will be completed.

A spokesperson for NHS Forth Valley said: “We have made good progress in resolving a number of the issues highlighted in this report and continue to work closely with NHS Assure and other partners to resolve any outstanding issues or concerns.

"The aim is to have the new inpatient ward operational at the earliest opportunity and all parties are committed to this. However, in the meantime, patients from other health boards are already being treated for a range of specialities in the additional two operating theatres at Forth Valley Royal Hospital with the support of the additional staff who have been recruited to support the delivery of the new NTC – Forth Valley.”