£3.5m aid at St John’s Eye and hand surgery theatre
A £ 3.5 million boost to St John’s Hospital will see the construction of a new theatre for eye and hand surgery patients.
The theatre will be built within the existing Ward 20 and will support pre and post operative care for patients.
The reconfiguration of the existing ward will create a new day surgery unit with two theatres and will improve access for patients requiring hand trauma surgery, hand elective surgery and ophthalmology surgery.
Aris Tyrothoulakis, interim site director, St John’s Hospital with NHS Lothian, said: “I’m delighted that this refurbishment has begun.
“The new day surgery unit will provide additional capacity allowing us to treat more people more quickly by increasing the number of ophthalmology and hand operations at St John’s.
“At the moment, patients waiting for hand trauma surgery can sometimes be admitted for an overnight stay and this refurbishment will provide additional capacity, reducing the need for these overnight stays.
“The investment shows our ongoing commitment to the Hospital and the £ 3.5m refurbishment will vastly improve the access for patients to these services.”
St John’s Hospital is home to the regional hand trauma unit and is the referral and treatment cent re for patient s throughout Lothian.
The project is being delivered in partnership with NHS Lothian’s appointed contractor RMF Health, which is a consortium bringing together two of Scotland’s largest construction and building services contractors, Robertson and FES and is expected to be completed in June this year.
Anna Daley, RMF Hea l t h F ramework Manager, added: “We are delighted to be working in partnership with NHS Lothian on the exciting redevelopment of our Ward 20.
“Th i s s i g n i f i c a nt refurbishment will make a real difference to the eye and hand surgery services which are available.
“We are proud to be playing our part in this project.”
The redevelopment to Ward 20 is one development in a larger programme of works planned for St John’s Hospital over the coming years.
T h rou g h capital investments and revenue funding, more than £ 30 million has been invested into services at St John’s hospital in recent years in order to increase capacity and improve patient care.
Investments have included the £ 7m short stay elective surgery centre, £3.7m endoscopy unit and £ 3m upgrade of the labour ward and special care baby unit.