Spade hits the ground for construction of specialist orthopaedic hub to serve the South West

Construction work is underway for the Sulis Elective Orthopaedic Centre, with an official breaking of the ground event at the Somerset site commemorated on Wednesday 24 July. The Centre is a highly anticipated addition to the award-winning Sulis Hospital and is set to open in late 2024. It will create the capacity for an extra 3,750 non-emergency orthopaedic NHS patients each year across Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon, and Wiltshire as well as the wider South West region, allowing people to have the surgery they need.

Patients will receive an exceptional quality of care, as 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), opened the ceremony commemorating the project milestone with a speech. He spoke about how organisations like Sulis Hospital are coming together to work in collaboration to provide the best care for patients, and that this building epitomises that as a direction of travel.

Vinci Building and Integrated Health Projects (IHP) are delivering the project. The regional director, Russell Flowers, presented a plaque to commemorate the achievement. The Groundbreaking Ceremony marks the commencement of the foundations for the new modular building at Sulis Hospital. It represents the start of a new milestone for the build, to appreciate the work that has been done to date, and to reinforce the vision for the future.

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 new 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.