Revealed: Time scale for Hereford hospital huts plan

Lying to the rear of the hospital, the new £16.5 million "elective surgical hub" will replace two of the "hutted" wards.

Designed by ADP Architects and project managed by Currie & Brown, the government-backed scheme is one of more than 50 new surgical hubs that are set to open across the country to help tackle covid backlogs and offer hundreds of thousands of patients' quicker access to procedures.

Views of the planned new building, and where it will sit within the hospital.

Replacing the outdated asbestos hut wards, the new two-storey hub has been designed with future flexibility in mind, using a steel frame to give the NHS trust the option of expanding vertically if it needs to.

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The new standalone hub will provide a completely new service aimed at speeding up elective surgeries and freeing up waiting times.

Types of procedure will include day case surgeries such as ear, nose, and throat (ENT), cataracts and minor operations.

Once the project has received planning approval, it is anticipated that it will move onto site in early 2023 and is set to complete in 2024.

Inside one of the hutted wards at the county hospital in Hereford.

"We're working as hard as we can to tackle the backlog of patients which has built up due to the pandemic," said Alan Dawson, Wye Valley NHS Trust's chief strategy and planning officer.

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"The new facility, which will be built on the site vacated by the last of the two remaining hutted wards, will create a state-of-the-art facility which will help us maintain our elective surgery pathways in a completely separate building on the county hospital site."

Internally, the two-storey centre will house assessment rooms, pre-op waiting rooms, two specialist operating theatres, a cataract suite for eye operations, recovery bays and associated facilities including a reception and staff offices.

Hereford County Hospital is to see a new £16.5 million “elective surgical hub”

The project is set to reach BREEAM Excellent, a key sustainability accreditation for major projects, with design proposals put forward by Speller Metcalfe focusing on overall energy performance such as airtightness, insulation, and off-site manufacture.

The regional building contractor, who delivered the MacMillan Renton Unit for the trust in 2011, has been given the green light to deliver the scheme, and is currently working with the trust to support both planning and design development.