A private hospital in North Wales is investing £500,000 in new state-of-the-art equipment over the next 12 months.

Spire Yale Hospital in Wrexham is upgrading its facilities at a time when they are experiencing growing demand from self-paying patients.

As part of the investment programme, a new £130,000 laminar flow clean-air system has just been installed in one of the hospital’s two main operating theatres.

The 27-bed hospital, which celebrated its 25th anniversary last year and is part of the Spire Healthcare group, carries out 2,000 operations a year.

There are also plans to buy new lasers for the urology department and a new microscope costing £40,000 for ophthalmic and spinal work in the operating theatre.

Meanwhile, £300,000 has been set aside for new x-ray equipment which should arrive later this year.

Hospital Manager Sue Jones said: “Our aim at Spire is to be world class and to do that you’ve got to invest in the business.

“We have just installed the latest technology in laminar flow systems in our theatres.

“The system delivers a continuous cycle of clean air flowing down over the operation site and distributed out away from the main area in theatre.

“It ensures that there is a change in the air in theatre every 20 minutes and this helps to minimise any chance of infection to the patient.

“It is best practice for all surgery, certainly for orthopaedic procedures and anything to aid smooth and efficient recovery in joint replacement surgery.

“It’s a brand new design state-of-the-art system which does not have a canopy so it is also a much better working environment for the surgical team.

“It’s a really worthwhile investment for us, particularly as we do so much orthopaedic work – including knee and hip replacements – which accounts for around 60 per cent of our surgical activity. As far as we are concerned, it’s an essential piece of equipment.

“It’s a difficult time for the NHS nationally for a number of reasons – not least because people are living longer and their expectations are rightly higher.

“As a result there is a growing demand for a private provision and locally, we are experiencing increasing growth in many procedures, but particularly in orthopaedic joint replacement. A big part of our business is providing a service for patients who are paying for the treatment themselves and not just for insured patients.

“They are prepared to pay for these operations rather than suffer prolonged pain.

Consultant Anaesthetist Dr Neil Agnew is delighted with news of the investment programme and is particularly impressed with the new clean air system.

He said:  “It’s an amazing improvement, and should be great for providing safe surgery and anaesthesia.

“The laminar flow system is a theatre module that enables us to do a variety of surgery including orthopaedic surgery which needs a very safe filtration system.

“It’s the latest technology, changing and filtering the air to ensure that it’s cleaned and purified constantly throughout the operation.”