Nuffield Health, one of the UK’s largest healthcare charities, has announced the opening of the City of London’s first independent hospital, located within the grounds of Barts Health NHS Trust’s St Bartholomew’s Hospital site, a leading specialist heart and cancer centre in Europe.
Nuffield Health at St Bartholomew’s Hospital is a new 55-bed hospital is split over two buildings, specialising in private cardiac surgery, cardiology, orthopaedics, cancer care and women’s health. It’s supported by seven intensive care beds and by a wide range of diagnostic and physiotherapy services, including 26 consultation rooms.
The hospital is part of a new health and wellbeing campus, meaning patients will have access to the recently opened Nuffield Health Fitness & Wellbeing Centre in Barbican, providing prehabilitation and rehabilitation support as well as mental wellbeing services, including CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) and counselling.
The charity will also run free to access community clinics from the campus, including Joint Pain and COVID-19 rehabilitation programmes. Patients who have long-term symptoms of COVID will be able to refer themselves directly or through a GP or NHS referral.
The new hospital’s cardiac care pathway also includes cardiac rehabilitation. Patients will be assigned one physiotherapist and one clinical nurse specialist to support them from diagnosis, through treatment and then onto rehabilitation with specialist fitness and dietary support, with the aim of improving their long-term health and preventing a future return to hospital.
Patients at Nuffield Health at St Bartholomew’s Hospital will have access to over 200 consultants, all of whom have university teaching hospital experience and many who practice at Barts Health NHS Trust. Dr. Andrew Deaner, a consultant cardiologist, is working at the new hospital and is well known for supporting the recovery of former footballer Fabrice Muamba, after he suffered cardiac arrest on the Tottenham Hotspur football pitch in March 2012.
Consultants will benefit from the breadth of experts working at the new hospital, with operating theatres featuring in-built live streaming capabilities. Live operations can be streamed to the hospital’s boardroom, providing world class training opportunities and clinical knowledge sharing.
Nuffield Health has invested £70 million into the new hospital. It has been built in collaboration with Barts Health NHS Trust, which runs St Bartholomew’s Hospital, and is operationally independent, with Nuffield Health leasing and renovating the former pathology and residential staff quarters buildings, at a cost to Nuffield Health.
Jonathan Canham, business development director and interim hospital director, Nuffield Health at St Bartholomew's Hospital, commented:
“We are delighted to open the doors to our new hospital, the first and only independent hospital in the City of London community. Our new hospital – Nuffield Health’s 37th hospital in the UK – complements the internationally-leading cardiac care delivered at the neighbouring St Bartholomew’s Hospital. Our private patients will have access to many leading consultants within cardiac, cancer, orthopaedics, and women’s healthcare.
“We are proud to be working with Barts Health NHS Trust. Both organisations have values of continually striving to help people throughout the different stages of their lives. Our positive relationship has already seen 20 members of the Nuffield Health hospital team being seconded into Barts Health hospitals in late 2021 to support in intensive care, cardiac wards, and with COVID vaccination clinics.”
Dame Alwen Williams, Barts Health NHS Trust Group chief executive added: “Our partnership with Nuffield Health has breathed new life into our historic buildings, while surpluses generated from private patient activity will be invested back into NHS services, benefiting patients across east London.”
The new hospital currently has around 200 employees, including nurses, clinicians and administrative staff. Recruitment for the new hospital team is continuing and vacancies can be found here.
