Hospital clinic is set for £900,000 refurb
THE outpatients clinic at Macclesfield Hospital is set for a £900,000 refurbishment next year.
East Cheshire NHS Trust, which runs Macclesfield District General Hospital, has been given £900,000 of additional funding from NHS regulators to spend on capital projects as a reward for beating its financial target in 2017-18.
At a meeting of the board of directors, chief executive John Wilbraham said the cash boost will be used to improve the outpatients facility at the hospital. He said: “It is some time since this department was established and it is the inten- tion of the [executive] team to seek to create a space that is good for both patients and staff.
“Also [it is] to ensure technology is utilised to ensure an efficient and effective service is delivered, and maximise opportunity for future delivery models. The executive team will be discussing the opportunity and who should be involved in the development during July.”
Executive board members are currently looking at other modern outpatients facilities as they prepare plans for the newlook Macclesfield clinic.
The trust must spend the cash in this financial year, with work expected to be complete before winter 2019-20. Mr Wilbraham added: “This is about looking at what is the future way of delivering outpatients services. It is about having a better environment fit for anything that we might achieve in the near future.”
The trust has also confirmed plans to spend an extra £500,000 to beef up cyber-security at the hospital.
At least 6,900 hospital appointments across the country were cancelled last May after the NHS was hit by a global cyberattack called WannaCry.
Speaking at the meeting, Mark Ogden, director of finance, said the funds will protect the systems against future attacks.
He said: “People will remember the attack on the NHS last year.
“We coped very well in terms of our response, how we protected our systems and the operational people who responded to that. But we have got an extra £500,000 to further strengthen our cyber response to make sure our computer systems are safe.”
In 2017 a £900,000 project was carried out at the hospital to re-configure the A&E department into two sections - one providing A&E services for the most seriously-ill patients while the other is a ‘primary care centre’ for people with less severe conditions.