Staff delight as work begins at hospital

WORK has started to re-shape the Emergency Department of Ysbyty Gwynedd to help increase capacity and improve the environment for patients and staff.

In February, Cabinet Secretary Vaughan Gething approved £13.89 million funding for improvements to emergency and urgent care services at the Gwynedd hospital.

Construction work started last month on the new ambulance entry outside the department which will be followed by work inside the department in three phases over two years.

The improvements will include a single point of entry to the department, three triage rooms, a four bay resuscitation area plus a separate isolation bay with external access, eight cubicles plus two treatment rooms, eight chairs in minor injuries, an assessment unit including relatives’ waiting room, paediatrics facilities with three assessment rooms with dedicated waiting rooms.

Matron Lyn Roberts said the improvements are going to make “vast improvements to patient care and the working environment for staff”.

She said: “The current Emergency Department is too small and is not designed to meet the requirements of modern clinical practice.

“The new department will provide us with a lot more facilities to help us manage all the safeguarding needs that patients present. This will not only benefit patients, but will also benefit our staff. The working environment is going to be transformed and massively improved.

“Part of the work includes a new staff room, shower room and changing facilities which will help the team and make them feel more valued.

“All of us here at the emergency department are thrilled to see the work has started, it is going to make a huge difference to our working lives as well as the patients who use it.”

Consultant Rob Perry said this development will give staff “a 21st century facility” so that they can provide the best possible care for their patients.

He said: “Here at Ysbyty Gwynedd’s Emergency Department we have a fantastic team of staff who work night and day to deliver the best possible care they can to patients in a facility which is now very outdated.

“This new facility will give them the 21st century facility they deserve so they can continue to deliver the best possible first class emergency care for our patients.”