AD Architects and Integrated Health Projects have been appointed to build an orthopaedic hub in Royal County Hampshire Hospital to tackle backlogs
The plans for Royal County Hampshire Hospital’s new orthopaedic elective hub were approved at the Hampshire Hospitals Foundation Trust (HHFT) board meeting.
Enabling work at the Royal County Hampshire Hospital in Winchester is already underway.
AD Architects is developing the building specification and Integrated Health Projects (IHP) are the contractors.
The new elective hub aims to reduce the elective backlog across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight by providing more capacity and allowing more operations to take place.
Adults across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight who require operations for orthopaedics (such as hip and knee replacements) will be eligible to attend the new elective hub.
The new elective hub will help in reducing the elective backlog across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight
Operations taking place at the hub would be in addition to surgery already taking place at our hospitals across Hampshire & the Isle of Wight.
Initially, patients in Southampton and Hampshire, will be offered the choice of having their operation at either their local hospital or the hub.
In the future patients from Portsmouth and on the Isle of Wight may also be given the same opportunity.
Further, the hub will deliver an additional 2,400 procedures each year and will operate six days a week with consultants from University Hospital Southampton and Hampshire Hospitals Foundation Trust operating on their patients in the Hub.
The elective hub is due to open in April 2025
Julie Maskery, Strategic Projects Director at Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said: “The building work for the hub will involve refurbishing a floor within the Burrell building in the Royal Hampshire County Hospital to create two theatres and the associated inpatient facilities. The elective hub is due to open in April 2025 and we look forward to welcoming our first patients.”
At the same time as building the new elective hub, Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust will also be commencing the construction of a new orthopaedic outpatient facility at the Royal Hampshire County Hospital.
The new department will provide:
- Eight outpatient rooms
- A co-located plain film X-ray service with an adjacent treatment room
- Four fracture clinic assessment booths with an adjacent two-bay plaster room
Activities delivered in the Orthopaedic Outpatient Facility will include:
- Specialist advice and support, clinical consultation, diagnosis, and treatment planning and delivery for orthopaedic patients.
- Therapy consultation, diagnosis and treatment in conjunction with a multi-disciplinary Allied Health team, including physiotherapy, occupational therapy and dietetics.
- Application and removal of plaster casts.
The “one-stop” model will also reduce the number of follow-up appointments
By co-locating services and increasing the footprint of clinic rooms, the Trust will significantly reduce how long patients have to wait for an elective outpatient appointment.
Once up and running, they aim to reduce the average wait from 9 weeks currently to below 5 weeks for patients to be seen for a first appointment following a referral to the service.
The “one-stop” model will also reduce the number of follow-up appointments by delivering the care patients need in just one appointment, with teams working side by side.
Dr Lara Alloway, Joint Chief Medical Officer for the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Integrated Care Board said: “These two developments will provide a significant benefit to our residents and is a positive step forward in reducing our backlog for elective surgeries.”
