Newcastle Westgate Cataract Centre opens its doors

A state-of-the-art theatre ‘hub’ dedicated to cataract surgery has opened its doors to patients as part of a Newcastle Hospitals initiative.

Newcastle Westgate Cataract Centre – a three-theatre, purpose built clinical facility– will perform up to 1,000 cataract procedures a month, which is almost double the number undertaken before the coronavirus pandemic.

The centre has been designed to ensure that patients have exceptional clinical care from the expert team at the trust. It has been streamlined to ensure that patients have no waiting – meaning that each patient will spend between just 40 minutes to an hour in the unit rather than the usual time of about three hours.

The ophthalmology team in Newcastle provide cataract surgery to patients across the region and every year receive hundreds of referrals. Just over a fifth of patients (21 per cent) live within Newcastle others come from across the North East.

Demand continues to increase year-on-year and cataract surgery is now the most commonly performed surgery in the NHS. The Royal College of Ophthalmologists estimates that demand will continue to rise by 25 per cent over the next 10 years and by 50 per cent over the next 20 years.

Krishnamoorthy Narayanan, Consultant Ophthalmologist and Clinical Lead, said: “Prior to the pandemic, all patients were seen at the RVI and we were already seeing pressures on our waiting lists.  Inevitably, waiting times have increased due to the pandemic. This is a very distressing situation for patients as cataracts can have a significant impact on quality of life and independence.  It has been very difficult for the team to tell patients and their doctors that we couldn’t offer them surgery as quickly as they would wish.

“Cataract surgery is a very quick, but very highly technical operation which makes a huge impact on the quality of life as the improved vision means that the patient can go back to their normal activities.”

Dame Jackie Daniel, chief executive of Newcastle Hospitals, said: “It’s fantastic that we can safely offer so many more patients the chance to have this important surgery and I am incredibly proud of the adaptability and creativity of the teams who have worked so hard to achieve this. This is a great example of transformational thinking to provide a much swifter service with a clear focus on patient care and experience.  It’s a model which I’m certain will be rolled out across the wider NHS.”