A major new £79.5 m surgical centre designed by architects, BDP, has been given the go-ahead.
With the practice already appointed by Taunton and Somerset NHS Foundation Trust to design a new Surgical and Critical Care Unit and Endoscopy Suite at Taunton’s Musgrove Park Hospital, the Department of Health approved the funding as part of a wider £760 m NHS announcement by Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Jeremy Hunt, in late March. Planning consent has also been granted. The new facility will include six endoscopy rooms, patient recovery and clinical support areas, eight operating theatres, recovery areas and clinical support, and 22 critical care beds.
BDP says the Surgical Unit will reflect its ‘new thinking around wider hospital design’, with dedicated wards to ensure that patients remain within the appropriate care team while in recovery.
“We are designing a complex that can expand and respond to future needs,” explained BDP Healthcare architect director, Nick Fairham. “Musgrove Park was originally built in the 1940s, with corridors so wide you could drive a jeep down them. Now we design hospitals where wards and care units are well connected, so there is no need for automated transport to get from the theatre to the wards. This major project is of huge significance to the local community.”
