Joint replacement operations temporarily suspended

Surgery requiring an overnight stay has been paused for six months

A hospital is suspending orthopaedic joint surgery which requires an overnight stay for six months.

The pause is to allow for the installation of a new £1.2m ventilation system on ward five of the Princess Royal Hospital, which is where patients are sent to recover.

The work starts on 15 September, and the ward is expected to reopen in March 2026. Patients who need to have a procedure are being offered the chance to have their operation at the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital in Gobowen instead.

Managers at the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals Trust (SATH) said that elective day surgery would continue as normal.

SATH's chief operating officer Ned Hobbs said they had tried to "minimise the impact on patients" by carrying out surgery on weekends in the run up to the closure.

He also moved to reassure them that it "should not affect [their] place on the waiting list", and that those affected by the temporary change would be contacted.

The money for the project has come from an NHS England grant, which the trust said would allow it to operate on patients who required more complex joint replacement surgery.