Work starts on medical centre at Bath hospital
Construction work gat has started on a new medical centre in Bath that will create up to 100 new jobs.
Sulis Elective Orthopaedic Centre will be an addition to the award-winning Sulis Hospital and is set to open later this year.
The centre will create the capacity for an extra 3,750 non-emergency orthopaedic NHS patients across Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon, and Wiltshire as well as the wider South West region each year.
The hospital has achieved accreditation as an elective surgical hub through NHS England’s Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) scheme and has a CQC rating of ‘Outstanding’ for care and ‘Good’ overall.
The hospital does not have an emergency department so elective surgery is ‘ringfenced’.
It is at less risk of being cancelled because the hospital does not perform urgent, non-planned operations.
Facilities at the centre will include two new modular theatres, additional inpatient beds, and the conversion of two existing theatres to laminar flow theatres.
Paul Doyle, transformation director of the Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire Integrated Care Board (BSW ICB), was at the groundbreaking ceremony commemorating the project milestone with a speech.
Vinci Building and Integrated Health Projects (IHP) are delivering the project.
The regional director, Russell Flowers, presented a plaque to commemorate the achievement.
Sulis Hospital has been part of the Royal United Hospitals Bath (RUH) family since 2021.
The elective care delivery model will benefit considerably from the Centre, ensuring that local people will get the care that they need as quickly as possible. NHS patients will actively see these benefits with a further reduction in wait times and waiting lists, and increased capacity to offset delays.
Simon Milner, a director at Sulis Hospital said: “It’s wonderful to be at the breaking ground stage of this development, which has been eagerly awaited by all.
!At Sulis, we’re proud to reaffirm our commitment to increase capacity and help improve NHS patients’ access to high-quality year-round elective orthopaedic care. As part of the RUH family, we’re able to give so much back to the local community and we’re keen to pioneer a new way of thinking in healthcare that can benefit everyone.”
Paul Doyle, added: “Patients from the three acute hospitals in Bath, Swindon and Wiltshire will benefit significantly from our joint work to create the Sulis Elective Orthopaedic Centre.
“Building on the strong reputation of the existing Sulis Hospital, our ambition is to be an exemplar regionally and nationally, providing quick access and high-quality care to our population and beyond. This spade in the ground moment marks an exciting progression towards that ambition.”
Andrew Hollowood, chief medical officer, Royal United Hospitals Bath, said: “We all want to achieve the best possible outcomes for the people in our care. One of the ways we can do this is to reduce the time people wait for elective surgery, so they can get on the road to recovery and a better quality of life more quickly.”
