Hospital £17.3m emergency department to open in spring
THE new £17.3million Emergency Department at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital is set to open in spring 2023.
The building will house 23 major patient cubicles, seven triage rooms, six minors treatment rooms, six paediatric rooms, dedicated patient bays, specialist rooms for mental health and a fracture and orthopaedics unit with additional clinical rooms.
Two new extensions have already been built onto the existing ED which is set to open this autumn and is part of the £100million programme of investment for both Gloucestershire Royal and Cheltenham hospitals.
Cheltenham General Hospital has a new £6.5m radiology department reopen, and a new £1m Medical Same Day Emergency Care has opened at the
GRH along with the new ward, Gallery Ward 2, which cost £4.5million and opened in August. Emergency Department Consultant Dr Helen Mansfield said: “Once complete these new facilities will provide a purpose-built environment where we will be able to provide high quality care for our patients. “For example, our resuscitation area, where we treat our sickest patients, will double in size enabling us to flow through our patients much more effectively. “Under the development we will also be providing specialised areas for patients in a mental health crisis. “We know that when patients are having a crisis, they benefit from being in the right environment. Having more secluded and private rooms will support this.”
With the build, it is hoped increasing pressures with ambulance queues and patients wait will be eased. However it is recognised it will not fix all the problems the hospitals have faced in recent times.
Medical director and interim chief executive officer Professor Mark Pietroni said: “The work at GRH’S ED is part of a wider programme to provide the next generation of care in line with our vision for two centres of excellence at our Cheltenham and Gloucester sites.
“We are happy with the progress to date across both sites and when this programme is completed it will bring with it many benefits for patients as well as staff.
“In terms of ED it will mean that patients flow through the department more smoothly, helping to ease some of the pressures with queuing ambulances and long waits, although it is important to stress that it won’t resolve these issues.
“The root causes are deeper and we will continue to work closely with our teams and system partners on improving the situation.”