A state-of-the-art building at the James Paget University Hospital has won a prestigious construction industry award.

The day care operating theatre complex took the honours in the Best Public Service Building category in the Local Authority Building Control East Anglia Building Excellence Awards.

It was officially opened in October 2015, following a major construction project which started 18 months earlier and involved the removal of a section of the hospital's roof to create three new day care theatres, a new ward and recovery area and anaesthetic room.

The creation of the new complex has helped the hospital increase its overall theatre provision from seven to eight theatres – and has created additional capacity for day case surgery, which helps reduce the time patients have to spend in hospital.

In total, some 50 separate contracting companies were involved in building the day care unit.