A new £13 million treatment centre will open at Mount Vernon Hospital on Tuesday promising “zero per cent” infection rates and comfort-focussed treatment.

Four operating theatres and 24 large consulting rooms form the backbone of the new Rickmansworth Road based centre which will immediately replace buildings staff said are “well past their sell by date”.

Touch-screen consoles, ceiling-suspended equipment and sound proof rooms for testing hearing aids will be some of the features on show when the currently silent building is filled with patients.

Consultant orthopaedic surgeon, David Houlihan-Burne, who has overseen the project, pointed to infection control being the most important aspect of the new building.

He said: “I suppose the most important thing for me was starting off here in a brand new building with a zero per cent infection rate. And that, from the public's perspective is where we want to stay.

“We are able to do that now, particularly in the way we have designed the operating theatres in terms of the way the equipment is kept away from the floor and suspended from the ceiling. All the equipment will be off the floor so there is no place for bugs to go underneath.”

Away from the scrub rooms and elevated machinery, work on maximising patient comfort is another key focus of the project, beginning at patient education and ending with a trolley based system General Manager Karen Blackbond said would cut down unnecessary patient movement.

Inspired by a visit to the United States, Mr Houlihan-Burne introduced a “rapid recovery”, education-based treatment method to the country which he will continue to promote and encourage at the new centre.

He said: “An example would be a joint replacement school a couple of weeks before they go to hospital where they will find out what type of operation they are going to have and get to play with a model of the knee or hip they are going to have.

"They will be given all the necessary information by the consultants so they can come into the hospital completely prepared. “Because of that education we reduce the anxiety and create much better results.”

Shortly after the move on Tuesday, the buildings the hospital is replacing will be demolished, the ground being landscaped and partially converted into car parking space.

Mr Houlihan-Burne said the design of the new development ensured the new treatment centre did not meet a similar fate in at least 25 years.

He said: “My role is to create a state of the art operating suite both for orthopaedics and general surgery that is future proof for 25 years. We don't know where we're going so we have to have a building that is going to move with the times and not be out of date in ten years.”

The buildings will be used for orthopaedics, urology and other general medicine. Local emergency treatment will remain at the Hillingdon Hospital in Uxbridge.