The Scottish Government has announced funding of £2.6 million to allow National Treatment Centre (NTC) Highland to deliver thousands of additional orthopaedic and ophthalmic operations every year.

The additional investment is allocated from £200 million contained in the Budget to tackle waiting times, delayed discharge and improve hospital flow across the country.

It will support the recruitment of new nurses, anaesthetists and healthcare support workers.

It is expected the extra funding will allow the centre to carry out around 8,418 procedures in the coming year. This is a 67 per cent increase on the 5,054 commissioned by the Scottish Government last year.

The increase in capacity will deliver procedures for patients in NHS Highland, NHS Grampian, NHS Tayside and NHS Shetland.

On a visit to the facility in Inverness, health secretary Neil Gray said: “In the two years since its opening, National Treatment Centre Highland has provided life-changing treatment to thousands of people living in the North of Scotland.

“This new funding of £2.6 million will help the state-of-the-art facility to deliver thousands of additional procedures every year – including operations for cataracts and joint replacements.  

“We know in the past too many people have waited too long for treatment, and the First Minister and I have set out a plan to change that.  We will deliver more than 150,000 extra appointments nationally and procedures in the coming year to ensure people receive the care they need as quickly as possible – targeting the longest waiting patients and optimising the use of our National Treatment Centres to substantially increase capacity.”