Countess of Wessex officially opens Heatherwood Hospital

Her Royal Highness the Countess of Wessex GCVO declared Ascot’s Heatherwood Hospital officially open on Thursday morning (January 19).

The Countess met with staff and patients during a special tour of the hospital before unveiling the plaque at an official opening event.

The tour included visiting the hospital’s state of the art theatre area, the day case ‘pods’, the ophthalmology department and an inpatient ward. 

The dedicated planned care hospital, which opened its doors to patients in March last year, has already had a significant impact on waiting times for local communities.

More than 1000 hip and knee replacements have been performed, up 20 per cent on the number of procedures carried out pre-Covid, more than 2000 cataracts operations completed,  and thousands of patients have been diagnosed, treated and discharged by specialists at the hospital. 

As a specialist planned care facility, Heatherwood has been able to perform surgery six days a week -  with four out of its six theatres dedicated to orthopaedic procedures.

The hospital has also successfully reduced the length of time patients stay in hospital, with 40 per cent of patients safely discharged within 24 hours.

The hospital has introduced several innovative ways of working in order to increase the number of operations it performs such as trialling orthopaedic ‘super weeks’ where surgeons managed to double the number of weekly joint replacement procedures from 40 to 80, as well as an outpatients’ ‘mega clinic’ – where patients who had waited the longest were invited in to see a team of consultants for a same day diagnosis and treatment plan.

Neil Dardis, chief executive, Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust said: “We are delighted to welcome The Countess of Wessex to officially open the hospital. It’s a very proud day for our staff and for the local communities, marking the treasured 100 year legacy of the old Heatherwood and celebrating this fantastic new hospital – one of the best planned care facilities in the NHS.

“It’s a privilege to showcase the achievements we’ve had in the last 10 months to improve planned care for our local communities. Tackling the waiting lists for our patients is more important than ever, we’ve built a strong platform to build on since we opened in March with all our staff working extremely hard to reduce waiting times and get patients the right treatment they need at the right time.”