Addenbrooke's new £85 million treatment centre has opened for business.
And the first patients at the huge, gleaming hospital building arrived yesterday (Thursday, 12 April).
It has taken two years to build, has 30,000 square metres of floor space, four wards with 128 beds and six operating theatres.
Dr Mary Archer, chairman of the hospital's board of governors, said: "This new building on the Addenbrooke's campus is a real centre of excellence, bringing together clinical services and research under one roof.
"This contemporary light and airy building will provide greatly improved patient facilities."
The extension, will cater for a number of specialisms which require day treatments.
The centre will be fully opened when the transfer of services is completed in the coming months.
Val Kikas, healthcare assistant, said: "We can all work together now. Our old ward was quite far away from surgery and we worked between them, so now that everything's in one place we feel more like a team."
Thirty-five patients in for gynaecological treatment and dental surgery were the first to sample the high-tech advances integrated into the structure.
The centre has innovative pre-operation assessment rooms where doctors can make sure everything is ready for procedure, ensuring smoother operations.
Operating theatres have an easy-clean touch-sensitive screen that lets surgeons control equipment, the first such system fitted in the country.
Lifts go straight to the wards on the third and fourth floors and to the theatres on the second floor so patients do not have to be wheeled through public areas.
Chutes from the wards make sure linen and rubbish can be handled easily and sterile services, which clean surgical equipment for the whole hospital, have been given more room.
Jemma Robertson, staff nurse, said: "It's much nicer here - there's lots more space and we feel like a proper unit. It's better for us and better for our patients."
The top floor of the building has huge labs dedicated to genetic research.
Other specialisms catered for at the centre include urology, gynaecology, ear, nose and throat, plastics, childhood and adolescent diabetes and endocrinology.
