Staff get first look at new Surgical Elective Centre at John Radcliffe Hospital

Nearly 800 Oxford University Hospitals (OUH) staff visited the new Surgical Elective Centre (SEC) at the John Radcliffe Hospital on Monday 7 September, as part of a special staff open day.

The event gave staff from across the Trust the opportunity to see inside the new facility, learn more about how it will operate, and understand the benefits it will bring to patients and teams across OUH.

The SEC is one of the most significant projects undertaken by OUH in recent years. Located adjacent to the West Wing and Children’s Hospital at the John Radcliffe, the new centre will provide additional operating theatre capacity to help address waiting lists for complex routine procedures and meet the needs of the growing population across Oxfordshire and the wider Thames Valley.

The first phase of the SEC will provide seven additional operating theatres, two of which are dedicated hybrid theatres featuring advances in theatre technology. These facilities will enable the most up-to-date procedures to be carried out in a suitable environment across multiple specialties.

Hybrid theatres combine advanced medical imaging with a conventional surgical operating room. This allows surgeons to undertake imaging, biopsy, diagnosis and surgery in a single treatment space, supporting both minimally invasive and open surgical procedures.

For patients, this means that procedures can be completed more efficiently, with less need to move between different hospital departments. It can also support improved patient flow and recovery following surgery.

The staff open day was an important opportunity for colleagues to see the development first-hand and understand how the new centre will become part of the Trust’s wider surgical services.

Cheryl Muldoon, Operational Lead for the SEC at OUH, said: “It was fantastic to welcome just under 800 colleagues to the SEC during the day and give them the opportunity to see this exciting new facility for themselves. We’d never done anything like this before and it was really rewarding that so many staff could come and see the SEC before it becomes a restricted clinical space. The feedback from our staff was fantastic, which was wonderful to hear.”

Jason Dorsett, Chief Finance Officer at OUH and Senior Responsible Officer for the SEC, said: “The SEC is a major investment in the future of surgical care at OUH. The additional theatre capacity and new hybrid theatre technology will help us provide more care for our patients, while giving our staff access to modern, purpose-built facilities.

“Thank you to everyone involved with the open day – it was a real success and I was really pleased that so many of our staff came by to see the SEC.”

Completion of the first phase of the building is due later this year, with the new theatres opening in a phased programme over the coming months.

The SEC forms part of OUH’s ongoing investment in its facilities and services, supporting the Trust’s ambition to provide high-quality, safe, and effective care for patients across Oxfordshire and the wider Thames Valley.