Construction work is underway at the Sulis Elective Orthopaedic Centre. An official breaking of the ground event at the site was commemorated on Wednesday 24 July.

The Centre is a highly anticipated addition to the award-winning Sulis Hospital and is set to open in late 2024.

It will create the capacity for an extra 3,750 non-emergency orthopaedic NHS patients across Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon, and Wiltshire as well as the wider South West region each year, allowing people to have the surgery they need. 

The hospital has achieved accreditation as an elective surgical hub through NHS England's Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) scheme and has a CQC rating of ‘Outstanding’ for care and ‘Good’ overall. 

The hospital does not have an emergency department so elective surgery is ‘ring-fenced’. It is at less risk of being cancelled because the hospital does not perform urgent, non-planned operations. Facilities at the Centre will include two new modular theatres, additional inpatient beds, and the conversion of two existing theatres to laminar flow theatres. 

Paul Doyle, Transformation Director of the Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire Integrated Care Board (BSW ICB), opened the ceremony commemorating the project milestone with a speech. He spoke about how organisations like Sulis Hospital are coming together to work in collaboration to provide the best care for patients, and that this building epitomises that as a direction of travel. 

Sulis Hospital has been part of the Royal United Hospitals Bath (RUH) family since 2021. The elective care delivery model will benefit considerably from the Centre, ensuring that local people will get the care that they need as quickly as possible. NHS patients will actively see these benefits with a further reduction in wait times and waiting lists, and increased capacity to offset delays. 

The region will also benefit from the 100 jobs that Sulis Hospital is recruiting for to staff the Centre.

Among those commemorating the breaking of ground was Simon Milner, Hospital Director at Sulis Hospital. He comments: “It’s wonderful to be at the breaking ground stage of this development, which has been eagerly awaited by all. At Sulis, we’re proud to reaffirm our commitment to increase capacity and help improve NHS patients’ access to high-quality year-round elective orthopaedic care. As part of the RUH family, we’re able to give so much back to the local community and we’re keen to pioneer a new way of thinking in healthcare that can benefit everyone.” 

Andrew Hollowood, Chief Medical Officer, Royal United Hospitals Bath, adds: “We all want to achieve the best possible outcomes for the people in our care. One of the ways we can do this is to reduce the time people wait for elective surgery, so they can get on the road to recovery and a better quality of life more quickly. Today is a significant milestone for this goal as construction work begins on the Sulis Elective Orthopaedic Centre. I’m looking forward to welcoming our patients to the Centre when it opens later this year.”