SERVICE DESIGN Patients will soon benefit from a new surgical day unit and longer theatre opening times at Lincoln County Hospital part of United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust.

The new unit will be on level one of the maternity building and is set to reduce waiting times for day case patients and maximise use of theatre time.

The facility, which is due to open this summer, will be solely for the treatment of day case patients with only around one per cent requiring an overnight stay.

Associate director of transformation Heather Carter said: “Currently surgical day case patients are treated in theatres across the hospital depending on theatre availability and the nature of their operation.

“Lincoln County Hospital currently sees about 350 day case patients each month – and this figure could be more than doubled when we have the dedicated surgical day unit in place.”

Around £1 million will be spent on the scheme.