Robotic Assisted Surgery Comes To Wimbledon Through Local Partnership

Leading orthopaedic and sports medicine group Fortius Clinic, has partnered with Spire St Anthony’s, a hospital local to Wimbledon and the South West, to now offer patients in the town centre access to robotic-assisted surgery for joint replacements.

Fortius Clinic opened a new state-of-the-art clinic on Worple Road in September 2020, offering rapid access to orthopaedic and sports injury treatment for residents living and working in Wimbledon and the surrounding areas. The clinic was limited to consultations and radio-imaging but through this new partnership, a Joint Replacement Centre has been opened, to enable surgeries for local patients.

Hip and knee replacements, using the latest ground-breaking robotic technology, will be available for patients in and around Wimbledon, South London and Surrey. The cutting-edge Mako robotic technology transforms the way joint replacement surgery is performed, enabling surgeons to have a more predictable surgical experience with increased accuracy.

The Stryker Mako system facilitates higher level alignment and positioning during surgery, resulting in shorter recovery times and reduced post-operative pain, helping patients get back to doing what they love. Fortius Consultant Hip and Knee Surgeon Simon Bridle, who performed the first total hip replacement using the Mako at Spire St Anthony’s Hospital, said “hip and knee replacements are life-transforming procedures and as surgeons we want our patients to have the optimal outcome. Robotic-assisted joint replacement surgery allows the surgeon greater ability to tailor the operation to the patient’s individual needs. The technology assists the surgeon to achieve greater surgery accuracy which is directly related to the outcome for the patient.”

Jim McAvoy, CEO of Fortius Clinic said: “We are delighted to have partnered with Spire St Anthony’s Hospital to provide this technology to our patients who live in South West London. The hospital is close to our recently opened diagnostic and outpatient clinic in Wimbledon and working with the team at Spire St Anthony’s allows us to offer our world-class care and first-class service to a wider network of patients.”

Richard Coggings, Hospital Director at Spire St Anthony’s Hospital said: “My team and I are very excited to commence this partnership, as there is a great synergy between our two organisations, which will benefit our local community” The centre is open to both patients with private medical insurance, or those wishing to pay for treatment themselves.

Wimbledon Is Working

Time & Leisure Magazine

Firstly, thank you for the great response to my first blog. This month, while it remains challenging to find much to feel optimistic about globally, I have been encouraged in Wimbledon by our situation locally. Here are five recent encouraging experiences that have led me to feel that things are changing for the better here in the town centre: 

  1. The Return of the Business Community

    I recently attended a test event ahead of the official launch of Bombay Delight, a stunning new Indian Restaurant located opposite the Polka Theatre on The Broadway. The Love Wimbledon team has been delighted to work with Ajay, the Manager of the restaurant, from when it was still a building site several months ago and have made introductions for him into the wider Wimbledon community. Seeing so many people from Wimbledon’s business community reconnecting over a delicious Indian meal was a great reminder that bringing people together is an essential part of what BIDs can do – and a great new Indian restaurant is just what we need here. 

  2. Award-winning Culture and Hospitality

    Now in their tenth year, the Time & Leisure Food & Culture Awards are a really important recognition of excellence across South London. I was hugely impressed that 17 of our venues received awards and commendations from over 10,000 votes cast, including Diba (Local Restaurant of the Year), The Alexandra (Best Pub), New Wimbledon Theatre (Best Entertainment Venue) and Leon, who won the Wimbledon Town Centre People’s Choice Award, sponsored by Love Wimbledon. I’ve been fortunate enough to have visited the winners to give them their certificates, and it’s so rewarding to see their pride and delight in winning them. We are blessed with a really diverse and impressive food and culture offering in Wimbledon.

  3. A Safe and Thriving Night-Time Economy

    Last Friday, I went on patrol from 10pm – 2am with the Merton Street Pastors. The Street Pastors receive funding from Love Wimbledon and are a team of Christian volunteers who assist with our work in keeping the night-time economy safe, by offering reassurance and safety to those who need it, and making sure the town is cleared of glass bottles and other hazards. Our Footfall data suggests Wimbledon may have had its busiest Friday for at least 2 years last week, with all the pubs we visited reporting successful evenings. While spirits were definitely high, while we were on patrol we encountered no significant issues or trouble, which was reassuring to see. The Street Pastors are part of a sophisticated local intelligence network Love Wimbledon co-ordinates for the night-time economy with the Met Police and our hospitality businesses, which includes a Town Link Radio network and the Disc online intelligence system, which identifies and holds photographs of known individuals who could potentially cause trouble to ensure we remain on the front foot in dealing with such matters.

  4. The Piazza – Hearts and Markets

    For Valentine’s Day we tested our first Piazza activation of the year, with our large wooden heart installation. This proved to be a big hit, with partners, families and pet owners stopping to make the most of the opportunity to share their love. We were particularly impressed to discover that Storm Eunice couldn’t take it down either, it truly is an enduring love! Thanks to an overwhelmingly positive response to our heart installation, we have worked with the supplier to ensure a sustainable future for this feature and we have kept all the materials (plus opted out of polyester planting), which will be reused again on The Piazza next year.

    Following on from this, on Saturday we launched our first Market weekend of the year on The Piazza. I was there for the opening at 11am, and it was great to see so many loyal stallholders returning as well as new faces. Popular community choir, Rock Choir, attracted a crowd, creating a buzzy atmosphere for visitors. Markets are an important community asset. They create a public gathering place, provide economic support for small businesses and local craftspeople and crucially boost business for retailers in proximity. The Institute of Place Management reported in its Market Matters report that markets increase town centre footfall by up to 25%, and 55-71% of those attending also spend money in other shops while visiting. We have exciting plans for our monthly markets for the remainder of 2022, including a sustainability themed market, two Friday Food markets and integrating the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. I hope to see you there. 

  5. Sustainable Placemaking

    Last weekend I attended the Centre Court Shopping Centre exhibition, where Romulus, its new owners, outlined some of their ambitious plans around sustainability and supporting a circular economy. With beehives, a rooftop urban farm of 3 greenhouses, mushroom farming from coffee granules and rainwater harvesting, the new focus on sustainability at Centre Court is just part of the cutting-edge thinking being applied to deliver what will be a bold and transformative reimagination. We share this sustainable vision for Wimbledon Town Centre, which is why it’s one of our strategic priorities for the next five years.

Once again, I’ve enjoyed meeting more of our businesses this month, together with local councillors, our Member of Parliament and other stakeholders. Please do get in touch if we haven’t spoken yet – I am keen to meet as many levy payers as possible before we officially start our third BID term on 1 April 2022! 

Craig Hurring, CEO of Love Wimbledon BID.

Covid-19 Additional Relief Fund (CARF)

Merton Council have emailed all businesses in Wimbledon Town Centre that they believe are eligible for Covid-19 Additional Relief Funding.

This includes a reduction on your business rates bill for 2021/22 and is targeted at businesses that were not eligible for the Expanded Retail Relief or the Nursery Discount in 2021/22.

The council has been granted £4,787,440 to distribute to qualifying businesses. To qualify for the support your business needs to meet the following criteria:

  1. Not received relief or would not have been eligible for the Extended Retail Discount (covering Retail, Hospitality and Leisure) or the Nursery Discount.
  2. The property has not been unoccupied (other than hereditaments which have become closed temporarily due to the government’s advice on COVID-19, which should be treated as occupied for the purposes of this relief)
  3.  Have been adversely affected by the pandemic and have been unable to adequately adapt to that impact.

We estimate that the relief for business’ 2021/22 bill could be 10%. If you have already paid your rates bill in full, the council will transfer the credit to your 2022/23 bill.

It is hoped that applications will go live on Friday 9 March 2022 and will be open for a three week period. Applications will close on Thursday 29 March 2022 at 5.00pm.

To apply for this relief you will need to complete an online application using the following link www.merton.gov.uk/coronavirus/business/grants/carf

If you think that your business may be eligible for this funding, but has not been contacted by Merton Council, then please email BRGrants@merton.gov.uk