A&E EXTENSION WORK UNDER WAY AT HILLINGDON HOSPITAL
WORK to expand the A&E department at Hillingdon Hospital is well under way as the former urgent care centre (UCC) was completely stripped out on Friday.
Pipes and electrical services are being installed on the new A&E majors unit, which will provide four cubicles, two side rooms, a consulting room and a mental health room.
This phase of the work is due to end in November this year and is part of a bigger expansion, which includes adding a new building within the existing hospital footprint in Pield Heath Road.
Planning permission for the expansion was granted by Hillingdon Council this spring.
The current space used for the fracture clinic, alongside the new extension, will be reconfigured to accommodate both the UCC – renamed the urgent treatment centre – and the fracture clinic.
Overall, the work will cost more than £2 million, with the bulk of the money having been secured in a successful bid to the Department of Health and Social Care last year.
A spokesman for The Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said the department “recognises that Hillingdon’s current A&E footprint is too small for the volume of patients it sees”. They added: “The restricted space hinders the speed with which patients can be treated and makes it extremely difficult to meet the four-hour waiting time target.” The combined A&E and UCC were commissioned in 2013 to accommodate up to 350 patients per day.
The department now sees an average of 450 per day and numbers can peak at 500. Chris Knight, capital projects manager at The Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Everything is on track and it’s very exciting. “This is the solution that gives us the extra capacity we really need in A&E majors.”
This is the solution that gives us the extra capacity we really need in the A&E majors Capital projects manager Chris Knight