Ed Miliband welcomes £14.9 million theatre facility at Mexborough Montagu Hospital

It was announced last week that Mexborough Montagu Hospital will benefit from a £14.9 million investment for a new elective orthopaedic centre.

Funded by NHS England, Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals (DBTH) will lead the programme to create the new centre.

Known as Montagu Elective Orthopaedic Centre (MEOC), the hub will be used for hip and knee replacements as well as foot, ankle, hand, wrist and shoulder surgery.

Doncaster North MP Ed Miliband welcomed the announcement:

“It’s great news that Montagu Hospital in Mexborough will be home to a new state-of-the-art elective orthopaedic centre.

“There are far too many people still waiting for hip and knee replacements and this will make a difference, cutting down waiting times.

“I am also excited by the opportunity this offers to bring Montagu Hospital closer to being a centre of excellence for elective and diagnostic care.

“Although this is very welcome news, I am still concerned that we seem no closer to securing a new hospital to replace Doncaster Royal Infirmary. Current and former Doncaster MPs, Mayor Ros Jones and local health leaders have all pushed for this for years.

“The Conservative government made big and repeated promises to Doncaster, but where is the action? I will continue to push for Doncaster to be included in the Government’s New Hospital Programme.”

All of Doncaster’s three MPs as well as Doncaster Council officials have called for a new hospital in the borough.

Analysis by South Yorkshire Integrated Care System (ICS) outlines that South Yorkshire’s operation waiting list is around 43% greater than it was in March 2020.

2,500 patients have waited over 52 weeks for operations, of which two thirds are waiting for an orthopaedic procedure.

The new centre at Mexborough will take massive strain off local orthopaedic services, with an estimated 2,200 procedures in the first year.

This will account for around 40 percent of the local waiting list.

Planning is currently underway, with construction of the theatres set to begin in May 2023.

It is set to reach completion and open seven months from now, in November 2023.