TWO new operating theatres and a high-tech diagnostic unit have been unveiled at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary.
The theatres are already in use and are reducing the length of time patients have to wait for surgical operations.
The £3.5m extension features a new vascular laboratory, day case surgery and new inpatient operating theatre, for more complex procedures.
The inpatient theatre is the sixth at the infirmary and the new day case theatre brings the number to three.
Major operations on patients with cancer and complex orthopaedic procedures are taking place in the new inpatient theatre, while minor operations on the ear, nose, throat and eyes, are performed in the day case theatre.
The vascular laboratory is used to diagnose problems in veins and arteries and is equipped with two new ultrasound scanners worth £100,000 each.
The facilities, hous- ed in a three-storey extension, mean patients who require complex surgery, such as operations on the spine, can now be treated in Huddersfield instead of going to Leeds or Bradford.
Funding for the project came from West Yorkshire Strategic Health Authority in the face of competition from hospitals around the region.
