New elective centre will be based at PRI Plans for £35million building welcomed
Proposals for a brand new £35 million Tayside Elective Care Centre at Perth Royal Infirmary have been revealed.
It is estimated construction of the new elective care centre at PRI will get under way at the end of 2022.
The plans were unveiled at a meeting of NHS Tayside’s board on February 25.
The project had been paused due to the pandemic - but board members were told of a revised estimated timeline.
An outline business case is currently being prepared.
If approved, the building is due to become operational at the end of 2024.
Back in May 2019, chief executive Grant Archibald told board members the centre will reduce waiting times for outpatient appointments and elective procedures - resulting in thousands of patients across Tayside having their procedure or appointment sooner than expected.
At that stage the location of the centre had yet to be confirmed.
Updating the board at Thursday’s meeting, Mr Archibald said the new centre would be situated in Perth. He said it would be “21st century” and would be “an important redevelopment of that campus” and a “commitment of access to service”.
Chief officer of acute services Lorna Wiggin said: “The Tayside Elective Care Centre provides us with an opportunity to contribute to creating capacity over the next 15 to 20 years for all the elective procedures that need to be carried out.”
The project is said to now be progressing “fairly quickly”.
The brand new centre will not only serve Tayside but play a regional role.
NHS Tayside is one of five Scottish health boards developing new elective care centres as part of the Scottish Government’s National Elective Centre Programme.
Perth city centre SNP councillor Eric Drysdale sits on the NHS Tayside board.
He told the board: “I am absolutely delighted to see this project coming towards fruition and it will be a hugely welcome addition to the health service provision in the city of Perth, and obviously - as you have pointed out - across north east and central Scotland as part of this national growth of elective care centres.
“And I am completely over the moon that I am one mile from it myself at the moment.”
Ms Wiggan said the services provided at the Fair City site would range from cancer procedures to day case procedures.
Specialities would include breast surgery, general surgery, gynaecology, neurosurgery, oral maxillofacial surgery, orthopaedics, ophthalmology, plastic surgery, urology, dermatology and ear, nose and throat (ENT).
Board members were told recruitment has already started so that staff are in place by the time the centre is opened in 2024.
In a statement released to the press, chief executive Grant Archibald said: “The planned elective care centre would allow us to carry out hundreds of additional routine operations every year and make PRI a centre of excellence for planned surgery.
“The development of the Tayside centre would see a significant investment at Perth Royal Infirmary, underlining NHS Tayside’s commitment to providing first-class healthcare from the PRI site for the future.
“PRI has the potential to be a recognised centre of excellence and all the teams in the hospital are looking forward to developing the plans further.”