Designs have been submitted to planners for a £16m elective surgical hub at Hereford County Hospital.

Designed by ADP Architects and project managed by Currie & Brown, the Government-backed scheme is one of over 50 new operating centres that are set to open across the country to help tackle COVID backlogs and offer patients quicker access to procedures such as ear, nose and throat (ENT), cataracts, and minor operations.

“We’re working as hard as we can to tackle the backlog of patients which has built up due to the pandemic,” said Alan Dawson, Wye Valley NHS Trust’s chief strategy and planning officer.

“The new facility, which will be built on the site vacated by the last of the two remaining hutted wards, will create a state-of-the-art facility which will help us maintain our elective surgery pathways in a completely-separate building on the County Hospital site.”

Internally, the two-storey centre will house assessment rooms, pre-op waiting rooms, two specialist operating theatres, a cataract suite for eye operations, recovery bays, and associated facilities, including a reception and staff offices.

Regional building contractor, Speller Metcalfe, which delivered the MacMillan Renton Unit for the trust in 2011, has been given the green light to deliver the scheme, and is currently working to support both planning and design development

“As a local contractor we know first hand the direct impact this project will have on Herefordshire residents in reducing elective surgical waiting lists so contributing to this project really means a lot to us as both a company and as part of the local community,” said Adrian Speller, technical director at Speller Metcalfe.

“We are also right behind the trust’s approach to delivering on the NHS’s carbon reduction targets, which is a key part of this scheme and we will be supporting as far as possible with our sustainability expertise to reach the highest standards.”

The project is set to reach BREEAM ‘Excellent’, sustainability rating, with design proposals put forward by Speller Metcalfe focusing on overall energy performance such as airtightness, insulation, and offsite manufacture.

Replacing outdated asbestos hut wards previously built in the 1940s, the new hub has also been designed with future flexibility in mind, using a steel frame to give the trust the option of expanding vertically should the need arise.And the scheme is also the first project procured under the new ProCure23 national healthcare framework for the design and construction of NHS capital projects, a collaboration between NHS England and Crown Commercial Service.

Once the project has received planning approval, it is anticipated that it will move onto site in early 2023 and is set to complete in 2024.