New 16-bed intensive care unit opens at hospital

The first patients have been treated on the new unit

Bath's Royal United Hospital's new 16-bed intensive care unit (ICU) has opened.

The hospital was one of many this winter to face high demand for urgent medical care. The new unit cares for those recovering from major surgery, heart attacks and strokes, or life-threatening infections such as sepsis.

At the opening ceremony was Bath Rugby's Tom Dunn, who volunteered at the hospital with his wife during the pandemic.

He said: "Whenever I have been to the RUH in the last few years, whether to visit or to help out, the thing that really strikes me is all the people pulling together in the same direction to do the best for patients - whether porters, pharmacists, nurses or the estates team."

The Friends of the RUH, an independent charity, helped raise £225,000, which went towards specialist equipment in the unit.

Bath Rugby player Tom Dunn was at the opening ceremony

Rhyannon Boyd, associate director of RUHX - the official NHS charity of the Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust - said: "Each of the beds in the unit has a new ICU pendant, which will help provide extraordinary intensive care treatment in the critical hour of need where every second matters.

"Thank you to all our supporters who helped make it happen."