Norfolk's largest hospital has unveiled plans for another new multi-million-pound orthopaedic centre, to help cut waiting times for several routine procedures.

The proposed new £29.5m site is designed to increase the number of knee, hip, shoulder, ankle and foot surgeries that can take place at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital.

Plans for it have emerged only days after another new orthopaedic centre accepted its first patients - two years after it was originally scheduled to be up and running.

That site, the Norfolk and Norwich Orthopaedic Centre (NaNOC), will see staff carry out surgical procedures three days a week and help increase the hospital's bed capacity with the addition of its own ward.

It ended up costing £10m more than initially expected, because of two-year delays causing the bill to swell to £21m.

(Image: NNUH)

The second, proposed site - NaNOC 2 - is estimated to cost £29.5m and will be built near the other one, on the southern part of the Colney site, on land formerly making up part of the car park.

It has already been granted planning permission, with bosses currently working up a business case to secure funding to make the scheme a reality.

Lesley Dwyer, chief executive of the N&N, said: "The Norfolk and Norwich Orthopaedic Centre is going to make a big difference for patients waiting for knee, hip, shoulder, ankle and foot surgeries.

"We treated the first patients in the unit this week and one of our key priorities is getting NaNOC up to full capacity to help reduce waiting time for patients.

"The volume of demand on our orthopaedic services is huge, which is why we are developing plans for NaNOC 2 to build a second unit, which will double our capacity with another two orthopaedic theatres and will go a long way in helping us reduce our patient waiting lists."

Currently, the hospital has more than 9,700 patients awaiting treatment from the orthopaedics department.

Of those, around 1,500 people have been waiting more than 65 weeks.

Prof Dwyer added: "We really believe that this model of having a standalone elective centre works and means we can continue to run planned surgery, even when the main hospital site is experiencing high demand and emergency admissions."