Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust plans for new theatre unit at Newark Hospital welcomed by Newark Town Council

Plans for a new theatre unit at Newark Hospital as part of a £5.6m upgrade have been welcomed.

Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has applied for permission for a new Laminar Flow Theatre Unit and associated works at the hospital.

The new unit is part of a £5.6m investment by the trust funded by NHS England.

The money will be spent on new state-of-the-art theatre and recovery area and the development of two minor operations suites.

As a result, an extra 2,600 operations and procedures are expected to take place every year.

It is hoped it will allow more patients to be treated closer to home and reduce waiting times for appointments.

The project will create extra capacity in elective (non-urgent) care for urology, ear, nose and throat (ENT) and breast surgery, which have the greatest backlogs.

In addition, it will also enable clinically-appropriate procedures to be moved out of the theatres into minor operations suites to free up space for bigger procedures, in line with the national initiatives.

As part of the project, the existing minor operations suite on Minster Ward will be lined with lead, and have an air handling unit installed to filter, heat, cool and condition the air. This will enable procedures such as cataract removal and injections guided by X-rays to take place there rather than in a theatre.

Additional minor operations, which could include bladder investigations, prostate biopsies and injections for eye conditions, will take place in the current Outpatient Treatment room.

The planning application was discussed by Newark Town Council's planning committee and was welcomed by members.

Johno Lee said: "I welcome this proposal as we constantly hear from residents that they want to see more services in Newark."

The application will be decided by Newark and Sherwood District Council.