The Mayor of Weston-Super-Mare has joined staff at Weston General Hospital to celebrate the completion of major refurbishment to the hospital’s operating theatres.
Weston Area Health NHS Trust, which runs the hospital, has invested £2.4m into upgrading its whole suite of operating theatres. State of the art facilities will deliver higher standards of pre-and post-operative care for 5,000 patients undergoing surgery every year.
Weston General Hospital has four operating theatres which have been renovated over the last eleven months, taking place in stages to ensure disruption to patients was kept to a minimum.
The final operating theatre at Weston has now completed its refurbishments and new patients will be seen from January 2016.
The Mayor of Weston-Super-Mare, Councillor Raymond Armstrong, was shown around the new facilities by staff from theatre and surgery, before attending a special ribbon cutting ceremony to mark the official opening of the theatre.
The new theatres are equipped with an upgraded air flow system which allows staff to monitor air and humidly levels – the upgrade also sees improved operating lights and high tech control panels which allow surgeons to control all the equipment in the room at the touch of a button.
The event was hosted by the Trust’s Chief Executive, James Rimmer, and was attended by nearly 40 members of staff and partners involved in the project, who took the opportunity to visit the new theatre as part of the open day.
Mayor of Weston, Councillor Raymond Armstrong, said: “I’m delighted to be here today to open the operating theatre. Weston is a growing town which needs a modern hospital with good facilities to support the community.
“It’s not every day you get the chance to step inside an operating theatre. The facilities are state of the art – which means people going for surgery can be certain they’ll be receiving the best care possible.”
James Rimmer, Chief Executive at the trust added: “It was a pleasure to open our new theatre to the Mayor, staff and our partners involved in the project.
“Refurbishing our operating theatres has been a huge undertaking. Our priorities were to have the most up-to-date and modern facilities for our patients and to reinforce the message that Weston is open for business.
“I’d like to thank our staff, as well as partners MAT and Capita, who have worked incredibly hard to see this project come to fruition, both on time and on budget. Through expert planning and organisation disruption to patients was also kept to a minimum.
“We perform more than 400 orthopaedic and general surgery operations every month and we want all of our patients to have a comfortable and positive experience when they come to our hospitals to have surgery.
“This refurbishment will ensure that we are able to continue delivering excellence and high standards to our community.”