Treatment centres are medical institutions in the United Kingdom which provide routine diagnostic and surgery procedures to day-case and short-stay patients. By diverting these patients away from hospitals, they aim to reduce waiting lists by allowing hospitals to concentrate on emergency and more complex elective cases. Treatment centres were set up as part of the 2002 National Health Service (NHS) Plan to inject more money into the NHS.
The NHS Plan originally conceived of opening eight treatment centres by 2005, but by August 2005 at least 25 had already been opened, with more being planned. Most Treatment Centres are NHS-run, but some of them are run by the independent sector.
There are now 46 NHS treatment centres open since 2003. They treat approximately 300,000 patients a year with high rate of patient satisfaction (>94%).
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“Our treatment of both older people and children reflects the value we place on independence and autonomy. We do our best to make our children independent from birth. We leave them all alone in rooms with the lights out and tell them, “Go to sleep by yourselves.” And the old people we respect most are the ones who will fight for their independence, who would sooner starve to death than ask for help.”
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