Royal opening for the London Clinic's new eye centre
Pioneering new eye centre will offer patients the very
best in treatment and care
HRH Princess Alexandra today (Wednesday 23 November 2011)
visited The London Clinic – the UK’s largest, independently owned,
non-profit hospital – and opened its new eye centre.
The pioneering new eye centre, based
at 119 Harley Street, has undergone a £4.6 million development and
now boasts nine consulting suites and a further eight procedure and
treatment rooms.
The cutting edge facilities provide a bespoke and specialist
extension to the huge range of treatments and services already
available within The London Clinic’s main hospital.
Currently, there are over 250 patient beds and 12 operating
theatres including dedicated endoscopy suites and a day surgery
unit, as well as a 24-hour consultant-led Intensive Care Unit with
11 beds.
HRH Princess Alexandra arriving at the Eye Centre and being
greeted by (from L-R) Paul Holdom, Sanjah Shah, Andrew Barker and
Professor Robin Williamson who will be taking over Chairman's post
in the new year.
However, the eye centre is an innovative ‘one stop shop’ for
outpatients seeking the very best in eye health treatment and care,
providing access to some of the world’s leading treatment
specialities, including corneal tomography, autofluorescence (to
determine health of retinal tissue) minor operations (e.g. excision
of cysts from eyelids) and SLT (Selective Laser Trabeculoplasty)
for glaucoma.
Her Royal Highness was greeted by the Vice Lord-Lieutenant of
Greater London, Wing Commander Michael Dudgeon and The London
Clinic’s Chairman, Mr Michael Abrahams CBE DL. During the visit,
which lasted just under an hour, the Princess was shown around the
new centre by the Clinic’s new Chief Executive, Mr Paul Holdom, and
some of the leading consultants and staff.
The hospital was first opened in February 1932 by The Duchess of
York (later Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother).
In March 2010, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, accompanied by
The Duke of Edinburgh, officially opened the Clinic’s £90 million
cancer centre. Then, later that year, The Princess Royal
launched a new fundraising partnership between The London Clinic
and the Intensive Care Foundation1.
Mr Paul Holdom, Chief Executive of The London Clinic said: “It
was wonderful that Princess Alexandra was able to visit our new
facilities and officially open our eye centre. The centre
promises to provide a vital service for those patients wanting
direct access to our leading consultants, as well as to our highly
advanced facilities.
“It was a proud and special moment for all those who have been
involved in the planning and development of this new centre and we
hope that Her Royal Highness found the visit, and the opportunity
to meet some of our consultants and staff leading experts in eye
health, an interesting and enjoyable experience.”
The plaque
- ENDS -
For more press information, or to
request photographs please call Jo Hudson or Natasha Lee on 020
8786 3860 / 0770 948 7959 or email
pressoffice@thelondonclinic.co.uk
For further information please visit: thelondonclinic.co.uk
Notes to editors
- The London Clinic is the
UK’s largest independently-owned non-profit hospital
- Over 250 patient beds and 12 operating theatres including
dedicated endoscopy suites and a day surgery unit
- 24 hour consultant-led Intensive Care Unit with 11 beds
- As a registered charity and not-for-profit organisation, The
London Clinic is able to continuously reinvest in the latest
medical technology, facilities and clinical and nursing
support
- Highly complex procedures in addition to routine surgery and
medicine such as organ transplants, radiosurgery, radiotherapy,
robotic surgery and neurosurgery
- Long-standing international reputation attracting leading
consultants for nearly 80 years
1 The Intensive Care Society is the
oldest critical care society in the world and represents all
professionals working to deliver a top quality critical care
service. Membership currently stands at over 2,500 members, whose
aim is to improve patient care primarily through education and
research.
The Intensive Care Foundation is the research arm of the Intensive
Care Society and was founded in 2003. To date, The Foundation has
contributed £500,000 to pilot cutting-edge clinical trials. The
success of these trials has led to a further £5,000,000 from
mainstream sources of funding into healthcare research.
The Foundation is running the world’s largest registry of
patients’ functional status and quality of life after critical
illness treated on intensive care units (the ICON Study).