The new Surgical Elective Centre (SEC) at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford – designed and built by MTX – is a persuasive example not only of how such buildings ought to be constructed, but also how NHS waiting lists could be significantly reduced by the adoption of innovative approaches to surgical workflows and patient care. Health Estate Journal editor Matt Seex reports.
On a very hot, sunny day in early July, Health Estate Journal drove to John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford to visit the site's new six-storey Surgical Elective Centre (SEC), which has been designed and constructed by Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) specialist MTX for Oxford University Hospitals (OUH) NHS Foundation Trust.
Occupying a former car park, the 14,500m2 SEC was constructed using 365 bespoke, precisely designed steel structural modules, manufactured offsite and assembled at John Radcliffe Hospital between July and September 2025 over an eight-week period, effectively creating a weatherproof, ready-for-fit-out, six storey clinical building (including a sub-basement) in less than three months — an impressive feat. Indeed, the MTX team proudly point out that, a mere 10 months prior to our visit, there was nothing on the site at all.
The SEC is the latest project MTX has completed at John Radcliffe Hospital. Previous builds include the five-storey, 5,450m², 48-bed Oxford Critical Care (OCC) unit, comprised of 148 modules, which was completed in 2022.
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