New Day Surgery Unit Opens

The Ipswich Hospital NHS Trust’s new Day Surgery Unit opened on Tuesday, June 24, in the hospital’s £26million treatment centre.

The Garrett Anderson Centre is the biggest development on the hospital site for 30 years and will house emergency care, critical care, elective care and day surgery.

There will be a significant increase in the number of day surgery patients treated each day. The new department features four operating theatres, 18 single adult day surgery trolley cubicles , a six-bay post anaesthetic recovery suite and a recovery lounge for minor operation patients.

Children will be treated in a dedicated paediatric area with a play room and seven day surgery trolleys bays/single rooms. One of the operating theatres will be set aside for children, and for the first time the department will have a minimal-invasive surgery theatre to support the continuing development of key-hole procedures.

Artwork has been donated by The National Trust, and the department is being renamed from Foxhall Unit to the Raedwald Unit after the first king of East Anglia, King Raedwald, who is believed to have been buried at Suffolk’s Sutton Hoo.

Lorraine Boorman, clinical lead for the unit, said: “We have outgrown the Foxhall Day Surgery Unit and the new centre provides a far superior healthcare environment. Patients, visitors and staff will notice a huge difference.”

The day surgery trolley areas are more private, for patient privacy and dignity, infection control and there are also much improved staff facilities including a resource room to support study, research and education

Earlier this month the hospital’s new Emergency Department opened in the Garrett Anderson Centre. It is more than twice the size of the old emergency unit and includes a children’s emergency department. A 22-bed critical care unit with four isolation rooms to help tackle infections and a 40-bed elective care ward with 20 single rooms, all en suite, have also opened.

Chief Executive Andrew Reed, said: “It’s great to see the fourth and final department move over into this fantastic new facility, which is transforming the way this hospital cares for patients.”