Orthopaedic patients from across Suffolk will be treated a the Dame Clare Marx Building at Colchester Hospital

The first patients have had surgery at a new state-of-the-art orthopaedic centre which is one of the largest of its kind in Europe.

Named after Dame Clare Marx, who was an orthopaedic surgeon at Ipswich Hospital, the centre, in Colchester, began treating patients on Monday.

The Dame Clare Marx Building has eight theatres, three wards and 72 inpatient beds and is dedicated to elective surgery for bones, joints and muscles.

It is hoped the centre, at Colchester Hospital, will help change the lives of up to 10,000 people each year, who will be operated on there.

Speaking on Monday, Nick Hulme, Chief Executive of East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation trust (ESNEFT), which runs the centre, said: “This is a fantastic day for us as a Trust and for those people across Suffolk and north east Essex who are currently waiting, in pain, for an operation that will help them to get back to their normal lives.”

Mr Hulme thanked everyone involved in the five-year-project to build the centre.

He said: “Everyone has worked extremely hard to get us to this point and we couldn’t have done any of it without their superb efforts.”

In June the NHS Suffolk and North East Essex Integrated Care Board (ICB) agreed to a proposal to move some orthopaedic operations from West Suffolk Hospital, in Bury St Edmunds hospital, to the new centre.

About Dame Clare Marx

Dame Clare Marx, was a consultant trauma and orthopaedic surgeon at Ipswich Hospital, and became the first female president of the the British Orthopaedic Association and The Royal College of Surgeons of England before becoming the Chair of the General Medical Council.

Before her death in 2022, Dame Clare Marx accepted the invitation for the name of the elective care centre to be named in her her honour and was able to see the start of building work.

On its website, ESNEFT said: “Dame Clare was a caring and compassionate doctor to all her patients in east Suffolk and beyond.

“She was an outstanding ambassador for both Ipswich Hospital and ESNEFT since 2018. She championed women in medicine and has inspired thousands of young people to become clinicians.”