Accommodation buildings for more than 100 key health workers are being opened on Tuesday in Headington.

And the ceremony will be used to honour the memory of the pioneering orthopaedic surgeon Prof Gathorne Girdlestone, whose home was on part of the site.

The purpose-built staff accommodation is spread across four buildings in Old Road, near the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre.

Staff working at the NOC and at other Oxfordshire hospitals, will be able to rent homes through a housing association, Sanctuary Alliance, at rents about 20 per cent below those usually asked in the city.

The accommodation will also be available to staff from other trusts.

A blue plaque honouring Prof Girdlestone, who in 1933 founded the Wingfield-Morris Orthopaedic Centre, now the NOC, will be placed on the site of his old home. Prof Girdlestone remained at the NOC until his retirement in 1948.

It will be the 25th plaque to be erected in the city, since blue plaques were introduced in 1999 to remember celebrated people and buildings.

It will be unveiled by Hugo Brunner, the Lord Lieutenant of Oxfordshire and chairman of the Oxfordshire Blue Plaques Board.

Joanna Foster, chairman of the board of the NOC, said: "This is an important occasion for us at the NOC.

"We are very proud to have a Blue Plaque honouring one of our great pioneering surgeons whose work was so pivotal in building our outstanding national and international clinical reputation.

"The opening of this excellent new accommodation enables us to continue attracting key staff at rents which are much more affordable than elsewhere in the city.

"Although there are still some rooms remaining, the early take-up underlines the urgent need there is for this sort of accommodation."