A UROLOGY day unit has been created at Colchester General Hospital after £250,000 was pumped into getting extra staff and equipment.

Located in the hospital’s Elmstead day unit, it means more patients with urinary tract problems can have surgery without needing to stay overnight at the hospital, freeing up beds.

The unit has also freed up room in the theatres in the main ospital building and is helping to reduce waiting times for patients needing surgery for a urological cancer, such as prostate, bladder or kidney cancer.

Gerald Rix, consultant urological surgeon and trust urology lead, said the new unit would pay for itself within six months He said: “We’ve bought extra equipment, such as a new X-ray machine, an endoscopic tower and additional endoscopes. We’ve also been able to appoint a sixth consultant urological surgeon, Sam Datta, who joined us in November and who has played a key role in helping to develop the urology day unit.

“Staff in the urology team have been trained to use the new equipment and our plan is to expand both the number and range of urology operations we carry out on a day case basis, so in the future they will include some prostate and bladder procedures.”

Until now, the Elmstead day unit was used primarily for minor procedures and Extracorporeal Shock Wave Lithotripsy, which uses sound waves to break kidney stones into very small pieces, which can more easily travel through the urinary tract and out of the body.

Ureteroscopy is now being carried out in the Elmstead day unit in which a small scope, like a flexible telescope, is used in conjunction with a laser for lasering stones which are too hard for shock wave treatment.

Before the day unit was established, those patients would have stayed overnight in hospital.