Hospital opens new surgical centre to ease backlog

A new surgical centre, built to reduce the planned surgery backlog that built up during the pandemic, has now officially opened.

The Princess Royal Bristol Surgical Centre at Southmead Hospital will increase surgical capacity in Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire.

The elective facility has four theatres, 40 recovery beds for patients, and will enable an additional 6,700 operations to be carried out across the area every year.

It is a joint project between North Bristol NHS Trust (NBT) and University Hospitals Bristol and Weston (UHBW), built with £49.9 million funding from NHS England.

Many procedures were postponed during the pandemic and long delays of more than 52, 78, and even 104 weeks became common in elective care.

The trust said many of the most frequently planned surgeries, such as hip and knee replacements, will now be prioritised to help reduce long waiting times.

The hospital having its own theatres, recovery beds, medirooms and X-ray facilities helps ensure that urgent surgeries do not interfere with scheduled procedures.

The first patients moved into the centre on 22 August, ahead of the first operations four days later.

The centre has 12 medirooms where patients are admitted prior to surgery and afterwards for recovery. It also houses the Rowan Ward for inpatient stays.

Kenneth Middleton, who had just undergone a hip operation in the Brunel building, was the first person through the doors.

"It's an amazing building, and as I was coming in I felt it didn't have the feeling of a hospital, it's a bit like a five star hotel," he said.

"It appears, from what I have seen, to be very relaxing."

The transfer was led by Sister Helen Jones, who also brought the first patient into the Brunel building when it opened in 2014.

"It's really exciting to have been involved in the creation of the new Bristol Surgical Centre," she said.

"As a team we have been involved with the design of the rooms, considering what a patient will need before surgery and after recovery. It is lovely to now see it open."

Maria Kane, CEO of Bristol NHS Group - the partnership between the two Bristol hospital trusts - said: "We are so proud to be offering surgery in this fantastic new facility bringing together surgeons from across Bristol to benefit local patients.

"This centre significantly increases our surgical capacity so that we can see more of our patients faster and demonstrates what we can achieve by working together across Bristol."

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