A ground-breaking ceremony has marked the start of a new £19 million unit being built at a Bradford hospital.
The NHS surgical day case unit is set to provide additional capacity to meet the needs of patients waiting for surgery.
The state-of-the-art unit, found on the existing St Luke’s site, is being funded by NHS England’s Targeted Investment Fund (TIF).
Due to be operational in spring 2024, the site will bring together skills and expertise of staff under one roof – reducing waiting times for some of the most common procedures.
It will focus mainly on providing high-volume, low-complexity surgery including trauma and orthopaedics, general surgery, urology, gynaecology, plastic surgery, and colorectal surgery.
These operations can be performed quickly and effectively in one place, improving quality and efficiency which will mean patients have shorter waits for surgery.
The daycare facility is being built by offsite healthcare specialist construction firm Darwin Group.
It is hoped to increase operations delivered by Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust by over 5,000 per year.
Most day cases will moving to St Luke’s, freeing up capacity for an additional 1,200 operations a year for normal planned surgery and day case surgery at Bradford Royal Infirmary (BRI).
The unit will be separate from the main acute site at BRI and will solely deliver planned surgery.
The risk of short-notice cancellations will likely be reduced as the day case unit - made up of two theatres - is separate from emergency services.
Surgical beds are kept free for patients solely waiting for planned operations - a move also hoped to improve infection control.
Chief Executive of Bradford Teaching Hospitals, Professor Mel Pickup, said: “It’s great to see work get underway on this fantastic purpose-built day case unit, which will mean better facilities for our patients and colleagues and help us deliver our vision of providing outstanding care for our communities across Bradford.
“It has taken a lot of hard work, effort and dedication from many people to reach this point and Friday’s event will mark a milestone in making the plans a reality.”
The new unit will be able to expand services for the local community while also providing employment opportunities, ranging from nurses, porters and cleaning service assistants.
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