Work to develop the new National Treatment Centre inpatient ward at Forth Valley Royal Hospital took another step forward this week with the arrival of the first building components.

Around 48 large modular units, which make up the main building blocks for the new ward, will be craned onto the construction site over the next week. They will then be assembled to create the outline structure of the new ward.

The construction of the new inpatient facility marks the final stage in the development of a new National Treatment Centre in Forth Valley which will be part of a network of new treatment centres developed across NHS Scotland to increase capacity and reduce waiting times.

It is part of a major national investment that has also funded the opening of two additional operating theatres (bringing the total number to 16) and the installation of a second state-of-the-art MRI scanner at the Larbert hospital. This has increased surgical and diagnostic capacity and created more flexibility for managing both planned and emergency surgery. The specialist MRI scanner, which is used to take images of all parts of the body including the brain, spinal cord, heart and blood vessels and internal organs, is housed in a customised room within the hospital’s Radiology Department, complete with backlit picture wall and ambient lighting to help patients relax in calming and less clinical surroundings.

The National Treatment Centre ward, which is being developed at the rear of the hospital between the Mental Health Unit and the Emergency Department, will create extra inpatient capacity to care for the increasing numbers of patients who require orthopaedic surgery. Along with the additional theatre and MRI scanning capacity, it will enable up to 1,500 additional operations to be carried out every year (mainly hip and knee joint replacement surgery), supporting the delivery of local and national plans.

Cathie Cowan, Chief Executive of NHS Forth Valley, said: “It’s great to see this important new inpatient facility start to take shape on the Forth Valley Royal Hospital site.

Staff across the organisation have worked incredibly hard to deliver this major expansion programme which will help us keep pace with increased demand and reduce waiting times for the thousands of patients who require hip or knee surgery every year.”