• Brand new theatres being built on site
• Extra theatre capacity will help with waiting lists
• Theatres should be up and running by April 2023

Two new theatres are being built at Royal Bolton Hospital in a multi-million-pound investment into healthcare in Bolton and Greater Manchester.

The state-of-the-art theatres should help improve patient experiences and help to clear the number of patients waiting for surgery.

The concrete slab was poured on Friday, 12 August, with the modular theatre buildings beginning to be delivered and built on site from Monday 15 August.

“It’s fantastic and means so much”

Annette Walker, Director of Finance at Bolton NHS Foundation Trust, said:

We desperately need these brand new, state-of-the-art theatres for both Bolton and Greater Manchester.

“They will enable us to give our patients a really good experience and hopefully better outcomes for the procedures they’re having.

“It’s fantastic and means so much for us and for Greater Manchester.

The two new theatres are being built on what was a staff car park near the Princess Anne maternity unit.

Cameron Rew, Senior Capital Projects Manager at iFM Bolton, said:

There’s a lot of work going on into forming the slab, a lot of things that you don’t actually see.

“Two concrete pumps positioned on either side of the site poured concrete, brought by 60 wagons, to form the slab.

“We have to pour the slab in one day to ensure it is strong and ready for the modular buildings to be built.

“There’s an awful lot of planning which goes in to place for a project like this.

To ensure staff have enough space to park, new car parks have been created throughout the Plodder Lane site by iFM.

Annette added:

After the pandemic we all know we have huge challenges around clearing our backlog of waiting lists.

“We also have some ageing estate in our hospital, with our theatres having been used for many, many years, so this will help us to get back on track and help to clear our waiting lists.

“We’re hoping that these new theatres will be up and running by April next year.

A planning application has been submitted to add a further two theatres to this site, to further increase theatre capacity.