Major renovations are set for the sterile processing department at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital next year.

The Bermuda Hospitals Board said the project, to run from February to July 2025, will cost approximately $4.5 million.

It includes new flooring, equipment and furniture, and an upgrade of infrastructure.

Sterile processing — a highly specialised cleaning process — is the sanitisation of equipment and items used in clinical care.

The BHB said surgical tools get cleaned and packaged for more than 9,000 surgeries a year.

Preston Swan, the BHB’s chief operating officer, said the “long overdue” upgrade would deal with issues from equipment failure to flooding, with the equipment more than 14 years old and housed in an older part of the general wing.

He added: “A failure in SPD could impact our ability to deliver lifesaving procedures and deliver safe care across our inpatient and outpatient service.”

The hospital will switch to a temporary sterile processing area during the upgrades.

Mr Swan said there would be “some patient impact”, adding: “We anticipate there will be a reduction in the number of major elective surgeries undertaken in any one day, such as hips and knee replacements, as these are very instrument-intensive.”

However, he said the hospital will be able to complete all emergency and time-sensitive surgical operations such as emergency Caesareans or cancer surgeries.

He added: “There will be less impact on procedures that don’t need much instrumentation, such as pain management, some cardiology procedures, endoscopy and urology procedures.”

Mr Swan was apologetic that there would “likely be fewer major elective surgeries during the first half of the year”.

He added: “We will continue to do all we can to minimise the patient impact across all our services.”