‘Milestone’ £4.5m ward built to meet older patients’ needs opens
ANEW 24-bed ward which has cost £4.5 million has officially opened at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital.
The new facilities at Gallery Ward 2, opposite the Tower Block, will deliver care for the elderly, including those with dementia and who are acutely frail.
The new ward has four four-bed bays, eight side rooms, dedicated ensuites and a new lift as well as a new staff room, pantry for cooking and cleaning and dedicated storage.
This build comes as part of a wider £100m cash injection to deliver centres of excellence across both Cheltenham General and Gloucestershire Royal Hospitals.
There is more space between beds and the ward has also been designed and decorated so each bay is colourcoded so patients can make their way back to their beds more easily.
The flooring has a matt finish as shiny floors have been known to confuse those who have dementia.
The ward has also been kitted out with new furniture, bedside USB ports for electronic devices and the latest technology to monitor patients.
While there have been no additional beds created as part of the work, the beds provided are a much higher standard.
Medical director and interim chief executive at Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust Professor Mark Pietroni said: “This is a very exciting milestone for the team and the trust more broadly as we provide the next generation of care in line with our vision for two centres of excellence.
“We all have a loved one, or know of someone who’s elderly, and as more and more of us live longer, and with more complex long-term conditions, so this ward provides the very best facilities and specialist care to ensure that anyone staying here is as comfortable as possible while giving our patients the best opportunity to live as independently as possible.”
The development, completed by contractors Kier, is part of a much wider building works improvement programme which started in 2021 and has already seen a new £6.5m radiology department reopen at Cheltenham General Hospital and a new £1m medical same day emergency care unit open at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital.
The medical same day emergency care unit enables more patients to be seen and treated on the same day, helping to avoid hospital admissions and avoiding the need for treatment at the emergency department altogether.
The trust says the launch of the new ward for elderly patients is a very exciting time as it looks to support the older generations more.
Consultant geriatrician Dr Sangeeta Kulkarni said: “There has been a great deal of care and thought gone into how the ward has been built so that it best suits the needs of our patients.
“For example, each bay has been colour-coded when painted, meaning it’s dementia friendly.
“Therefore patients who may walk away from their beds can navigate back much more easily.
“The floors are matt vinyl because shiny floors or floors with speckles in them are known to confuse and disorientate dementia patients.
“Even the number of beds on the ward was deliberately configured with infection, prevention and control in mind meaning that there’s more space in between beds, it’s easy to temporarily close a bay should there be an infection rather than a ward.”
Clinical specialist occupational therapist Rhianna Dobson-love said: “It is great to see the investment into this patient group and the team are feeling inspired and motivated to be able to provide assessment and intervention in a modern and purpose-built environment.
“We come to work to do our best for our patients and these facilities will play a big part in helping us achieve that.
“It means we’ll be better able to support effective patient discharge into the community.”
Dr Kulkarni added: “We have a very ambitious vision to develop our services further by modernising the ground floor as well as floor one of Gallery Wing to give us a dedicated centre of excellence for care of the elderly here at the GRH.
“This would be a dedicated centre providing the most specialist of care to some of the most vulnerable and poorly patients in our community.”
We come to work to do our best for our patients and these facilities will play a big part in helping us achieve that.
Clinical specialist occupational therapist Rhianna Dobson-love