Ruislip & Eastcote & Northwood Gazette
Major progress in plans for new Hillingdon hospital
PLANS for the new state-of-theart hospital in Hillingdon, which will transform healthcare for patients, have had significant developments.
Hillingdon council received the planning application on Wednesday June 22 for the new hospital due to replace the current one.
It will deliver the same mix of services, but with some new additions, and will be built in the same location (next to the current hospital) and the existing hospital will remain open during construction.
The upgrades will include a 40 percent expansion in floor space and more technology.
As well as a bigger A&E with specialist services and a new midwife led unit, will also be more single rooms and beds.
Currently fewer than 30 percent of rooms are single. The new development proposes to more than double this to over 70 percent.
The total number of beds on site will increase from 484 to 492 beds.
The number of CT scanners will increase from two to five, while there will be another MRI scanner to join the two current ones.
A new midwife-led unit will be located next to the labour ward for seamless and safe transfer when needed and there will be more outpatient treatment facilities, meaning an increase in surgery being done as ‘day case’ – relieving pressure on theatres.
Last year, Hillingdon Hospital was rated inadequate by the Care Quality Commission, CQC. This was largely down to a failure to act upon concerns about hygiene and staffing raised by inspectors in previous visits since 2018.
Jason See, who is responsible for the Redevelopment Project and Deputy CEO of the Hillingdon NHS Foundation Trust, said the new plans are a “once in a life time opportunity to build a state-ofthe-art facility for the people of Hillingdon and beyond”.
A summary of the plans – including a scale model of what the new hospital might look like – is available to see in person at an exhibition in Uxbridge Library until Wednesday July 27.
The exhibition includes posters with artist impressions of the new hospital as well as more information on how the plans should improve care and services.
To view and comment on the plans, visit the New Hillingdon Hospital redevelopment exhibition page.