Members of the construction partner team have scrubbed in for a different kind of procedure – starting to lay the structural foundations for the brand-new Centre of Excellence day surgery hub for children and adults at RD&E (Heavitree) Hospital.
Funding for the hub was announced in October last year and is part of additional capital investment from NHS England.
The hub will include new theatres and recovery space.
Chris Tidman, Royal Devon Deputy Chief Executive, said: “It’s great to have this first phase of work underway at RD&E (Heavitree) Hospital. Patients are still waiting longer than we would like for treatment and this hub is central to us seeing more patients and returning to national waiting time standards.
"It will transform our surgical services into modern, flexible environments for both our colleagues and patients, and I’d like to thank everyone who has been involved in the work to date.”
The new surgical hub is just one of the ways we’re investing in our facilities over the next three years. Other projects that are either underway or where funding commitments have been given include:
- creating a new community diagnostic centre (CDC) in Bideford and expanding the CDC at the Nightingale Hospital Exeter with three additional scanners
- delivering enhanced Same-Day Emergency Care facilities at both Exeter and Barnstaple
- a new NIHR research hub in North Devon
- new hospital residences at North Devon District Hospital as part of the Our Future Hospital Programme.
These schemes are part of a programme of investment totalling over £80m to modernise our estate, so that we can deliver high-quality and efficient care to our patients.
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