BAM Construction has started work under a ProCure22 contract for Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust on a new children’s cardiac hybrid theatre and intra-operative MRI facility at Leeds Children’s Hospital, set to open in February 2019, which will create a dedicated environment for paediatric cardiac surgery and paediatric neurosurgery.
The Trust said: “The theatre complex will improve the care provided to young patients with complex congenital heart disease, and those undergoing neurosurgery. The cardiac hybrid theatre allows cardiac surgeons and cardiologists to perform surgery at the same time, reducing treatment time for patients.”
The facility will incorporate an intraoperative MRI scanner that will allow scans to be undertaken during neurological surgical procedures. For example, surgeons will be able to see straight away how much of a brain tumour has been removed, rather than scanning at a later date to discover that additional procedures may be required
It will link directly to the existing theatres in the Clarendon Wing. Matthew Garnett, BAM’s construction manager, said: “The big challenge is not so much the construction, as working around a live theatre environment, and connecting the new structure to the existing one. That has involved detailed planning about how this will affect the Trust’s ongoing surgery times and our own construction programme. Our ongoing collaborative planning with the Trust is already proving very fruitful, and we have received some positive feedback.”
