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Lagan Valley Hospital in Lisburn is to become Northern Ireland's first day procedure centre.
It is part of the rebuilding of hospital services while dealing with the ongoing impact of Covid-19 on patients and staff.
The announcement was made by the Health Minister Robin Swann on Tuesday.
He also told the Assembly that Musgrave Park Hospital and Altnagelvin Area Hospital will be designated as hubs for orthopaedic procedures.
The aim is to ensure services can be protected from Covid-19 and maintained in the event of an expected second wave.
This is designed as an interim step, ahead of longer-term redesign and reform, and the two hubs and day procedure centre are expected to be open in the autumn.
While there will be some public consultation, these changes will be introduced as short-term services, with the final configuration decided with input from the consultation.
The department of health said there is a clear public health imperative to implement changes quickly.
Elective surgery was halted as the health service reconfigured to cope with the pandemic.
All elective cases will be now referred to Lagan Valley, with clinically acute patients who've been waiting being seen first.
The centre will deal with general surgery, ear/nose/throat, gynaecology, urology and some endoscopy day procedures.
It is estimated around 136,000 procedures will be transferred to the centre annually.
The emergency department will remain open at Lagan Valley, as it has a separate entrance and can be maintained separately from the new day procedure centre.
But there will be some "displacement" of services in the South Eastern Trust, which will require full public consultation.
Staff will also be consulted at a Trust level, around working patterns to support services.
Orthopaedic patients will be seen at either Musgrave Park Hospital or Altnagelvin Area Hospital, creating two specialist hubs for the whole region.
At Musgrave Park Hospital, the Duke of Connaught building will be reopened to become the orthopaedic hub.
It too will have a separate entrance, facilitating infection control.
An assessment will be carried out for the orthopaedic unit at Altnagelvin, to ensure infection control there.
Backlog
The immediate priority is addressing the backlog.
Before the pandemic, Northern Ireland already had some of the worst waiting lists in the UK, with some patients waiting as long as five years for procedures such as hip replacements.
Waiting lists are kept on a Trust level. This move will create regional lists.
For the past year, prototype clinics have been running at five dedicated centres across Northern Ireland for cataract surgery and varicose vein treatment.
The department said these have shown increased productivity.
This is the first stage of the rebuilding of services.
Trusts have produced three month plans to September, with another plan to follow for the remainder of the year.
The Department of Health is preparing papers on rebuilding cancer services, and urgent and emergency care, as well as a surge plan for the second wave of the virus.
They are all expected to be announced next month.