A NEW purpose-built eye care unit at Derriford Hospital will increase capacity for eye operations and cut waiting lists in Devon and Cornwall.

The NHS in Devon has received a £11.3m funding boost from the national Accelerator Systems programme to help tackle long waiting lists for eye and joint surgery caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

This cash will support three initiatives: creation of the new modular ophthalmology unit at Derriford; use of the Nightingale Hospital in Exeter for planned orthopaedic operations, CT and MRI scans, and outpatient appointements; and a scheme to convert existing facilities in the community so that eye operations can be carried out.

The new eye unit at Derriford will enable more operations such as cataract removal to be carried out and free up extra ward and theatre capacity at the hospital for use by other services.

Suzanne Tracey, Chief Executive Officer at the Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust and Northern Devon Healthcare NHS Trust, said: “We welcome this extra funding, which will help us to care for many people living across Devon and neighbouring counties more quickly.

“These projects are an opportunity to rapidly trial innovations that will increase the number of operations and diagnostic tests we can offer to our local communities.”

In tackling elective care waiting lists, the NHS in Devon says it will prioritise the most urgent patients and those who have been waiting the longest. Devon’s hospitals will work together to make the best use of their resources and will continue to use the independent sector to help reduce waiting lists.

Like all areas of the UK, local NHS systems had to suspend some normal activities during the pandemic to make sure the service was ready to treat patients with Covid, and many people have had to wait longer for treatment than they normally would.

GPs, specialists and their teams are focusing on those in most urgent clinical need and who have been waiting longest: by July, NHS Devon says it aims to have restored levels of activity back to more than 85% of that seen in 2019.