09/07/2021 | Press releases

Another operating theatre coming to ESNEFT

Another operating theatre is opening at Ipswich Hospital to help reduce patient waiting lists for people across Suffolk and north east Essex.

The theatre unit will be situated in an area of visitor car park F – please bear with us while we make some changes.

The Suffolk and North East Essex Integrated Care System (which includes ESNEFT) has been awarded £10million to bring faster treatment to patients following a growth of waiting lists caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. It is part of a national programme to recover NHS waiting lists known as the national accelerator programme.

It means a specialist theatre, clinical rooms and a recovery ward (together known as a vanguard theatre unit) will be arriving at Ipswich next weekend.

Another operating theatre is opening at Ipswich Hospital to help reduce patient waiting lists for people across Suffolk and north east Essex.

Another operating theatre is opening at Ipswich Hospital to help reduce patient waiting lists for people across Suffolk and north east Essex.

 

Part of car park F will be closed from Thursday (15 July) for preparation work and the whole car park will be closed Saturday (17 July) as the theatre is safely put in place alongside the Outpatients building (see inset picture). Much of the car park will then be reopened. A number of standard car park spaces will be changed to disabled spaces as the positioning of the theatre unit affects existing disabled parking. As fewer visitors are coming onto site there are alternative spaces for visitor car parking.

Construction work to get the theatre ready will continue into early August. A temporary walkway will be created as parts of the footpath will be out of use, and the direction of traffic flow in the car park will change. All the changes will be clearly marked.

The vanguard theatre will be housed at Ipswich Hospital for a year. Initially it will be used by West Suffolk Hospital teams (also part of the local integrated care system) for three months and will then be used by ESNEFT teams for nine months.

Another important part of the accelerator programme at Ipswich Hospital is converting the seventh floor of the tower block (home mainly to maternity services) into a ward for extra beds for patients needing operations.

Find about more about the Suffolk and north east Essex accelerator programme (opens in a new tab).

 

 

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