Complex M&E for new orthopaedic centre

Paul Briars, North West regional director for independent engineering, IT, and facilities services business, NG Bailey (pictured), discusses the company’s part in a major redevelopment at one of the UK’s top orthopaedic hospitals, Wrightington Hospital in Lancashire – famous as the site, in the early 1960s, of first ever hip replacement operations, by pioneering surgeon, Professor Sir John Charnley (HEJ – April 2013).

One of the UK’s leading centres for orthopaedic surgery, Wrightington Hospital near Wigan has recently seen the completion of a new £18.1m Orthopaedic Centre that incorporates one of the country’s first ‘barn theatre’ operating complexes. Barn theatres – with multiple operating bays separated by privacy screens and each with its own clean air enclosure – are known to provide increased safety, improved clinical practice, and greater efficiency, compared with the more ‘traditional’ one-bay operating theatre. 

Wrightington Hospital – which carries out more orthopaedic activity than any other hospital in the North West of England – already has one of the lowest infection and readmission rates in the region, and generates excellent clinical results. The Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh (WWL) NHS Foundation Trust says the new Orthopaedic Centre will enhance patients’ experience even further – with a much improved environment for both patients and staff, more single room accommodation, increased safety, improved clinical practice, and reduced length of stay.