Happy Anniversary Redlands - £10M surgical unit

Today, patients and staff on the Royal Berkshire Hospital’s Redlands Ward celebrate the first anniversary of the £10m surgical unit, which opened its doors to the first patient on 2 February 2015.

For a year,  staff in the 30-bed unit have cared exclusively for patients undergoing  planned orthopaedic surgery, including 348 total hip replacements, 342 total knee replacements, 27 shoulder replacements and 239 hand operations.  Other surgery at Redlands will include major spinal surgery.  

Dr Warren Fisher, Director for Planned Care at the Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Redlands ward is a first class facility for patients needing orthopaedic treatment.  Having the theatre next to the wards and keeping these beds for the sole occupation of our orthopaedic patients improves the outcomes from surgery.

“Patients are treated on Redlands ward by dedicated orthopaedic clinicians, physiotherapists, occupational therapists and specialist orthopaedic nurses.  This helps us to create a very safe environment and a specialist centre within the hospital.  This specialist environment is important for our orthopaedic patients as it means they have the care they need before and after their operations, including physio and occupational therapies.”

Redlands is a closed elective unit.  The purpose-built facility meets national standards for orthopaedic care.  It has an elevator connecting the ward to the theatre complex and four special laminar flow theatres which have a special system of circulating filtered air in parallel-flowing planes to prevent contamination, immediately post operatively from other environments.  This ultraclean, closed environment reduces the risk of infection.

The Trust is the first in the country to develop a postgraduate specialist orthopaedic nursing qualification, with the first cohort starting this year.

Ends

2 February 2016