Independent sector treatment centre

Independent sector treatment centres (ISTCs) are private-sector owned treatment centres contracted within the English National Health Service to treat NHS patients free at the point of use. They are sometimes referred to as 'surgicentres' or 'specialist hospitals'. ISTCs are often co-located with NHS hospitals. They perform common elective (i.e. non-emergency) surgery and diagnostic procedures and tests. Typically they undertake 'bulk' surgery such as hip replacements, cataract operations or MRI scans rather than more complex operations such as neurosurgery.

The NHS Plan 2000 originally conceived of opening eight treatment centres by 2005, but by August 2005 at least 25 had been opened, with more being planned. 46 NHS treatment centres opened between 2003 and 2009, treating approximately 300,000 patients a year with high rate of patient satisfaction (>94%).