MORE than �6 million is being spent on treating NHS patients with bad backs at private centres and hospitals out of the area, because routine spinal surgery is suspended at Staffordshire's biggest hospital.
The University Hospital of North Staffordshire stopped accepting new patients for routine spinal surgery in January.
It is so over-run with referrals, that hundreds of patients with bad backs and joints have not been treated within the Government's 18-week target.
Now NHS Stoke-on-Trent is providing �6.5 million extra cash to try to clear the backlog by sending patients elsewhere for treatment.
A total of 261 patients are currently waiting for routine surgery.
Some of the cash will be offered to the University Hospital to see if it can buy more orthopaedic capacity to take on some of the cases, and the rest will be spent on sending people to the alternative centres.
It comes as the initial five-month surgery suspension at the University Hospital has been extended indefinitely. Urgent cases such as cancer or fractured spines are still being performed at Hartshill.
NHS Stoke-on-Trent chief executive Graham Urwin said: "Within the �6.5 million package we are making provision for patients to have treatment at the private Nuffield Hospital.
"This is for those who cannot, or do not wish to, travel out of the area but who cannot have their operation at the University Hospital."
Latest figures from the hospital's orthopaedic department, which includes back surgery, shows that in April 737 patients had waited at least 18 weeks for treatment after being referred by their GP. The backlog peaked at 1,427 patients late last year.
Patient Rebecca Braithwaite, of Silverdale, has waited three years for treatment on her curved spine and has already been passed to the Nuffield Hospital, in Newcastle.
The 31-year-old, pictured left, said: "I have had a spinal injection and MRI scan at the Nuffield. The place is very nice and the treatment good, but it was done by the same doctors I was seeing at the University Hospital."
Dawn Johnson, of Nantwich, had her back operation cancelled twice before it finally went ahead in March 2009.
The 45-year-old, who says the operation has left her disabled, said today: "Problems in that department go back years. I wish I could have been referred to the Nuffield."
Barney Schofield, the University Hospital's associate director of surgery, said: "Patients who need urgent treatment, like those with cancer or a fractured spine, continue to be treated.
"But we have been unable to accept patients with non-urgent spinal conditions due to the high number of patients being referred to us.
"We have been working with primary care trusts to ensure these patients are treated as quickly as possible, through the use of alternative providers.
"We are doing everything possible to treat as many patients as we can"
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