New £64m orthopaedic centre due to open in a year

The Dame Clare Marx Building, at Colchester Hospital, is beginning to take shape, an NHS trust said

The final bolt has been tightened on a new 72-bed, £64m orthopaedic centre which is due to open in a year's time.

The Dame Clare Marx Building, at Colchester Hospital, is due to be one of the "largest of its kind in Europe", with eight new theatres, East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust said.

It will "transform care for Suffolk and Essex patients who need planned surgery on bones, joints and muscles", it added.

It is hoped the surgical hub, for common procedures such as hip and knee replacements, will carry out about 10,000 operations annually, leading to "fewer cancelled operations and shorter waiting times for patients".

A "topping out" ceremony has taken place at the building

Nick Hulme, the trust's chief executive, said: "Once it opens, it will provide one of the biggest single orthopaedic services in the country, in turn helping us to make sure that patients get seen more quickly."

He said a recruitment drive will soon start for a "raft of new positions".

It will run independently from Colchester Hospital with patients using their closest hospital for care before and after their operation at the new centre, the trust said.