Plans are now well underway for a new surgical centre at Guy’s Hospital in London, following government approval just granted to Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust.
The new centre (see axonometric image) will be dedicated to non-emergency (elective) surgery, and housed in a new eight-storey purpose-built building at Guy’s Hospital. It will include six new operating theatres, 17 recovery rooms, a discharge lounge, and change and rest facilities for theatre staff.
Elective orthopaedic surgery will transfer from Guy’s main theatres to the new centre, which the Trust says will ‘free up vital additional capacity’ to support other services. The Trust explained: “The surgical centre will help reduce waiting lists at a time of rising demand for complex and specialist planned surgery, and from a growing ageing population in south-east London and beyond.”
Professor Ian Abbs, CEO of Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, said: “The Guy’s surgical centre will give us state-of-the-art new theatres so we can ensure that people get their operations when they need them. Having a surgical centre dedicated to complex, non-emergency operations benefits orthopaedic patients, while also enabling us to upgrade our existing theatres so they can respond to the needs of all our patients – now and in the future.”
Architect, Ryder Architecture, has been appointed for the project, and main contractor, McLaughlin & Harvey, will be responsible for construction. The purpose-built facility has been designed with staff and patients, ‘to create an efficient and improved experience for everyone using it’.
The Trust added: “Guy’s surgical centre will also create capacity to consolidate complex, specialist orthopaedic work into a single south east London hub.”
Enabling works on the site at Great Maze Pond have begun, with building work scheduled to start in June 2026. Construction is expected to finish by the end of 2028, and the centre to open in Spring 2029.
