Specialty specific data

Trauma and orthopaedic surgery and ophthalmology services to be the most significant specialty areas for the independent sector. For the week ending 3^rd March 2024, trauma and orthopaedics made up 29.5% of all IS activity as recorded by WAR, with ophthalmology contributing another 23.8%.

Trauma and orthopaedics and ophthalmology are also the biggest contributors to the overall increase in independent sector activity since 2019. For February 2024, trauma and orthopaedics activity was up 19.9% compared with February 2019, while ophthalmology, driven by a significant increase in capacity for delivering cataract replacement procedures, was up 190% from that baseline (36,946 RTT episodes in February 2024, compared with 12,111 in February 2019). For February 2024, the independent sector delivered 25..7% of all NHS trauma and orthopaedics elective activity and 22.6% of all NHS ophthalmology activity.