‘Oriel’, the NHS’s first digitally enabled ‘smart’ hospital is due to open in 2027 as the new home for Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and the University College London (UCL) Institute of Ophthalmology.

With input from staff and patients, Oriel is designed to offer an inclusive environment for research to flourish, staff to thrive and patients to experience an enhanced, seamless experience, said a Moorfields statement. “With improving access and reducing eye healthcare inequalities being a focus, technology will play a pivotal role in how people use the building. This means patients will access specialist care virtually via the centre’s ‘digital front door’ (using mobile check-in and digital reminders in place of paper forms and telephone calls), to deliver care closer to home and avoid unnecessary visits.”

The design of outpatient areas, future-proofed for changing care delivery pathways, and Moorfields’ diagnostic test pathways for improved patient experience and clinical efficiency have already been trialled, said Moorefields.

Ophthalmology clinics account for 10% of all hospital NHS outpatient visits, said Laura Wade-Gery, Moorfields chair. “That figure is expected to rise, so we designed the new centre to ensure it is built to meet future demand.”

Oriel will also be home to ophthalmology research via its innovation hub, designed to encourage collaboration and catalyse the dissemination of knowledge and cross-fertilisation of ideas between clinicians and researchers, said Moorefields. This will include wet lab ‘neighbourhoods’, where each research group has access to tissue cell laboratories, genomic research and state-of-the-art cellular and molecular imaging, it said.

The centre’s 14 theatres “will enable clinicians to be highly efficient, increase elective activity and deliver an excellent experience for patients”. Oriel’s seven education areas will be shared by Moorfields and the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology to create opportunities for collaborative teaching and learning, while shared dry labs will be dedicated to experimental medicine, novel device development and early phase research.