Bradford Teaching Hospitals is investing £2m in the expansion and refurbishment of its gastroenterology services.
The make-over will see more patients being treated in an expanded endoscopy day-case unit which will be fitted with the latest medical equipment.
Facilities will be enhanced for patients undergoing endoscopies; a procedure where the doctor passes a long, thin, flexible tube with a light and camera at one end, into the patient’s body. Images of the internal organs are relayed to a television screen.
Work on the new unit began in November and will be completed in two phases.
Phase 1 will create the new endoscopy unit on level 2 of Bradford Royal Infirmary and is due for completion this spring. The next stage will see improvements made to the Trust’s existing endoscopy waiting and recovery areas on level 3 and will hopefully be complete by the summer.
Consultant Gastroenterologist, Dr Conrad Beckett, said: “We are expanding our service to cope with increasing demand so it is fantastic to see that the work to transform our endoscopy provision is well underway.
“It will provide a much improved environment for patients. It will also enable us to deal with the increased demand we are seeing. This is due to the age extension of the existing bowel cancer screening programme and the introduction of ‘bowel scope’, the one-off flexible sigmoidoscopy for every 55-year-old in the district.
“There will be dedicated facilities for capsule endoscopy – a tablet which is swallowed to provide internal pictures of the small bowel – and the new facility will see the doubling of scope rooms from three to six. This is amazing as it will allow us to separate inpatient and outpatient procedures to provide an enhanced experience for everyone.
“For staff, this new development will bring about a larger and improved working environment with state-of-the-art equipment.”
The gastroenterology expansion is part of the ongoing development of the service which saw a new, £2.5m decontamination unit open a year ago to support the endoscopy unit and theatres. The unit is situated on level 3, to the rear of Bradford Royal Infirmary.
Meanwhile, a new plastic trauma and dressing clinic opened its doors last month on level 1, while the currently vacant level 2 space will be used for future development.
