The Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust

Background
The Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust serves a local population of around 450,000 people from three hospital sites, providing a wide range of medical, surgical and rehabilitation services.
In 2021, with a backlog of urgent cases, large numbers of seriously ill Covid patients and rising levels of staff sickness, the Trust, in common with NHS trusts nationally, was forced to postpone hundreds of planned procedures. The Trust quickly enacted a recovery plan, putting on extra sessions at weekends and opening three new minor procedure rooms, but shortages of surgical nurses, ODPs and recovery staff were hampering progress. To enable full utilisation of their 17 operating theatres for a sustained period, and reduce the number of patients on waiting lists, the Trust needed extra workforce support.