New PKL Healthcare Day Surgery Unit

Please see below a Press Release from the Robert Jones & Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic and District Hospital NHS Trust website:

The new short stay surgery unit at the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt was named the Menzies Unit on Friday 23rd October, by the daughter of John C Menzies. The Unit was named after the hospital’s Secretary Superintendent (nowadays called a Chief Executive) from 1928 to 1956, John Menzies OBE. His daughter, Mrs Pat Anderson and grandson Richard, travelled from the Reading area to perform the official opening ceremony.


John C Menzies is a well remembered an honoured name at the Orthopaedic hospital. His administrative genius was particularly displayed after the hospital fire of 1948, when he quickly instigated the funding of the hospital rebuilding programme. He died in 1990 at over 90 years of age. The name Menzies was given to a former ward and the sign from then will be transferred to the new Unit. John Menzies’ portrait painting now proudly hangs in the reception area of the new Menzies Unit, beside the opening plaque.

Wendy Farrington Chadd, Trust Chief Executive thanked those involved, saying: “This is a superb facility which will improve quality of care for patients. The Unit comprises three operating theatres, which means that we now have an additional two theatres, as one replaced the old day case theatre. It was constructed within a very short timeframe and our thanks must go to the specialist contractors PKL Healthcare, the project managers from Capital Symonds and our own staff, in particular Consultant Anaesthetist Dr Sumeeta Conry and Unit manager Ande Joseph. It was a true partnership approach which has delivered a fantastic result on schedule.

We are honoured that the Menzies family have made the journey and delighted that, through the generations, they have remained friends of the hospital.”