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02 September 2013

Doors Open Day 2013 at the Bristol Heart Institute

The Bristol Heart Institute (BHI) will, for a third year, be part of Bristol Doors Open Day, taking place on Saturday 14 September. The award-winning BHI building, which opened in 2009, was designed by Bristol-based CODA Architects in partnership with patients, staff and the public and delivers the very best in cardiac services to the people of Bristol, the South West and beyond.

Guided tours will take visitors round the open parts of the building at regular intervals, from 10am with the last tour at 1.30pm.

Visitors will be taken through the light and airy atrium with its 14 real trees from the fig family and continue on to the day care area.  This is where patients are prepared prior to treatment and where they are taken to recover following their treatment.

The tour continues from the day care area to the catheter laboratories where cardiology diagnostic tests and treatments are performed.  Visitors will be shown the bi-plane catheter laboratory, which houses an X-ray machine designed to take two angles of the heart to give sharper diagnostic images of heart problems.

As they leave, visitors will see the patient lifts; during the consultation about the design of the building, patients told us that when they are on beds and being wheeled through hospital, the main thing they see is fluorescent lights.  So artists worked with our porters and designed beautiful patient lift ceilings.  From the patient lifts, visitors will be guided back to the atrium where the coffee shop will be serving refreshments from 10am until 2pm.

Alan Bryan, Clinical Chair of the Division of Specialised Services, said:  "Doors Open Day is a great opportunity to showcase our award-winning hospital building to the people of Bristol and beyond.  Many of our highly skilled staff have volunteered to  show the public round behind-the-scenes of the state-of-the-art Bristol Heart Institute where we offer patients high quality cardiac services in the most modern and professional surroundings."


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