St Edmunds Hospital in Bury St Edmunds undergoes £1.5million revamp including modernised bedrooms and operating theatre upgrade
A section of a private hospital in Bury St Edmunds has undergone a refurbishment at a cost of £1.5 million.
St Edmunds Hospital in St Mary’s Square, formerly the BMI hospital, has had eight of its 28 bedrooms totally refurbished and two of its three theatres upgraded in a 12 week revamp.
The hospital, owned by Circle Health Group, has seen work done to update the bedrooms and convert the bathrooms to wetrooms, as well as new flooring in both the corridors and bedrooms, new roofs, fire doors and a fresh lick of paint.
Executive director, Peter Lord said: “We’re bringing the main bedroom element more up to date. The idea is to make it more of a hospitality feel.
“There will in time be smart TVs, USB points for charging, improved lighting just to bring it up to what a patient expects to see in 2023.”
A third of the hospital was modernised in this first phase and just under £500,000 was spent on the bedroom project alone.There are no plans currently to continue the refurbishment process, but the hospital will look to put a business case forward next year.
As well as enhancing the patient experience, the refurbishment was also vitally needed to ensure the hospital can continue working with West Suffolk Hospital in clearing the Covid backlog by taking on patients who need orthopaedic work, general and cataract surgery.
As waiting lists for certain procedures continue to grow, Peter expects more people will turn to private healthcare.
He said: “It is inevitable that we will see more people.
“We do see predominantly private patients, but through the choose and book programme and through the agreements with West Suffolk Hospital we do see a good number of NHS patients.
“We need NHS patients to support our business and it doesn’t cost the NHS any more than if they were going to West Suffolk Hospital.
“If someone comes here to have a hip replacement as a fit person it’s freeing up a bed at West Suffolk Hospital for someone who may need it more.”
As the hospital moves into a fresh era, Peter is looking forward to the future.
“I’m really excited,” he said.
“We were bought by Circle Health coming up to three years ago and Circle Health just have a vision of what health care should look like.
“It realises that if we don’t move ahead we will be left behind.”