Case study
New Royal Eye Infirmary expands surgery capacity
A striking new Royal Eye Infirmary (REI) created off site by Modern Methods of Construction specialist, MTX, is helping to meet increasing demand for eye surgery from across Devon and Cornwall. Jonathan Baillie reports.
A new Royal Eye Infirmary has brought together outpatient and surgical eye treatments previously provided within the main Derriford Hospital in Plymouth, enabling clinicians to provide operations on an additional 520 patients each month, plus an additional 2,300 outpatients appointments annually. The state-of-the-art facility, which was manufactured off site, incorporates three operating theatres, an increased number of treatment rooms, and an expanded area for young patients. The ground floor incorporates three operating
theatres, recovery areas, and treatment rooms, with one of the three dedicated to sub-specialisms such as oculoplastic, orbital, and corneal surgeries. The first floor houses consulting/examination and testing rooms, while the second features offices and plant areas for the medical IT and uninterruptible power supplies and air-handling systems. As part of the project, MTX also built an adjoining Energy Centre. In all, 112 volumetric units were used to create the new building. The MTX site team was able to make use of an adjoining empty site, rented from the Council, to store the modules, while groundworks continued. Over a 21-day period in September 2022, the volumetric
modules were lifted into position. To find out more, I visited the building, meeting MTX Project director, Paul Williams, and Gill Nicholson, the Trust’s Service Line manager for Ophthalmology.
Gill supports all services within ophthalmology, including governance structures, working with a team to devise and implement best practice pathways, liaising with the clinicians to ensure that their pathways are up and running, helping write business cases, and during construction she also project- managed the new REI. By way of historical context, Gill explained that Plymouth’s first ophthalmology hospital was established by Dr. John Butter, a local surgeon, in the early 1820s. Despite encountering local opposition, with the support of Dr. Edward Moore, the Plymouth Eye Dispensary was opened on 25 December 1821 in a house in the city’s Cornwall Street. In 1823, it changed its name to the Plymouth Eye Infirmary, and, on 30 October 1901, Plymouth’s Royal Eye Infirmary opened on a site in Mutley Plain.
Royal patronage King Edward VII consented to continue the Royal Patronage, further cementing a royal patronage
begun by HRH the Duke of Clarence, later King William IV, in 1828. In early 2013, the Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust decided the 19th Century building in Mutley Plain, which had served local people for over a century, was no longer suitable for the ‘ever-expanding and developing service’, and it was decided that ophthalmology treatment offered there would transfer to Derriford Hospital.
Gill explained that since moving to Derriford in 2013, the bulk of inpatient and outpatient ophthalmology services had been provided on level 3 of the main hospital, about 15 minutes’ walk from the new REI building. She said: “Following the move to Derriford,
eye surgery was originally performed within the main Derriford Building. The new REI building gives us an additional ophthalmology theatre, increases our outpatient activity by over 20%, and thus improves our waiting list position. It also provides a Macular Treatment Centre, with two purpose-built injection facilities for our patients.” She continued: “Since opening, we have
increased our cataract theatre provision and reduced our waiting list for HVLC (high volume, low complexity) procedures to three weeks on average. The new building has improved patient access, reduced waiting times, and delivered a better service, treating patients from across Plymouth and some of Cornwall. “The building has predominantly been built for ophthalmology, but we will potentially use it for other theatre specialisms in the future. The ophthalmology surgery is mostly undertaken using local anaesthetic here, but the new building is also set up to take general anaesthetic cases. “We have 200 staff in
Ophthalmology...It is
The striking new Royal Eye Infirmary building created off site for Derriford Hospital in Plymouth, by MTX, opened to patients in October 2023.
52
www.clinicalservicesjournal.com I July 2024
great to have all of our 200 staff and services back under one roof, and to have new, purpose- built theatres.” Time was of the essence in getting the new building constructed and operational – one of the main reasons the Trust opted for a
All photos courtesy of James Leask Frazer
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64
