Somerset village hospital to become operations hub

One temporary additional theatre is currently running at the site as "proof on concept"

A village hospital is set to become a hub for orthopaedic operations.

Bath's Royal United Hospital (RUH) bought private hospital Circle Bath in Peasedown St John in 2021, renaming it Sulis Hospital.

Now, Bath and North East Somerset Council (BANES) has been told the facility will be able to operate on 1,500 joints a year.

It will also be a regional hub for other surgery for patients from Wiltshire, Devon and possibly Cornwall.

Paul Doyle, transformation director of Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire Integrated Care Board's elective care programme, said the hospital "currently does a combination of private treatments, but also increasingly an amount of NHS work".

He told BANES scrutiny meeting that his team had been successful in securing national funding to extend the facility and convert it into an elective orthopaedic centre.

"So part of it will be focussed solely on doing orthopaedic work: so hips, knees, shoulders, other joints."

Mr Doyle explained: "We will be turning it into what we call "cold sites", so there's no emergency care up there, but what that enables us to do is move patients though that hospital incredibly quickly."

Improved continuity

Two new modular theatres will be built at the hospital, bringing the total number up to six, allowing surgeons carry out about 1,500 joint operations a year, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Mr Doyle said this would improve the continuity of service for RUH patients, as wider services are currently provided at Combe Park where the service is often closed down for several months due to winter pressures.

The hospital will also become a "regional hub" for elective operations for patients from Swindon, Salisbury and North Devon.

"And indeed we are also talking to Cornwall at the moment," added Mr Doyle.

The facility should be operating from June 2024.