Hospital reveals its £30m future vision
First glimpse of how new emergency care unit could look
THIS is the first glimpse of how a £30m emergency care campus at Stepping Hill Hospital could look.
The state-of-the art facility is set to transform emergency care in Stockport and the High Peak by ensuring patients with urgent needs ‘will be seen by the right people, in the right place at the right time’.
It will include an urgent care treatment centre, GP assessment and planned investigation units, and new facilities for the hospital’s pathology services.
Last year the government pledged to fund a new campus at the hospital site, and plans have now taken a ‘vital’ step forward with bosses submitting a business case to NHS England and NHS Improvement.
Provided planning permission is granted, building work will start next year and should be completed in 2023.
Urgent and emergency services at Stepping Hill have been under increasing pressure for some time.
They were downgraded to ‘inadequate’ by watchdog the Care Quality Commission in May, after inspectors found patients were at ‘high risk of avoidable harm’ during busy periods.
Speaking in Parliament earlier this year, Hazel Grove MP William Wragg called for a ‘radical long term solution’ to tackling A&E waiting times at the hospital, after it emerged 200 people spent more than 12 hours waiting for a ward bed last December.
He has now welcomed the progress being made towards securing the new campus.
“It’s hugely important that it’s taken this step forward,” he said.
“It comes at the same time that the first designs have been published, so we can see there’s real momentum behind the project and it’s certainly going ahead.
“The additional investment in Stepping Hill is vital to sort out the longstanding issues in A&E and emergency care at the hospital, which goes back to having a building which is essentially designed for half the admissions that Stepping Hill is dealing with at peak times.”
The £30.6m campus could also be an asset in the long-term battle against Covid-19.
Last month Sir Mark Walport, a member of the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) warned that coronavirus would be with us ‘forever in some form or another’ - potentially heaping yet more pressure on stretched health services.
But while Mr Wragg says the problems at Stepping Hill’s A&E and the issues around coronavirus are somewhat separate, he believes the new hub will help the hospital meet the challenges of the future.
“I think it will do, it’s all about improving the movement and admission of patients through the hospital as well,” he said.
“This large scale capital investment in the building is important for the flexibility of the hospital.”
In the more immediate term, however, Stockport NHS Foundation Trust - which runs Stepping Hill - is to receive more than £3.6m to help it cope with the extra pressure on its services over the winter.
It is part of a £18.4m package for Greater Manchester, which Prime Minister Boris Johnson says will help hospitals ‘upgrade their facilities and improve A&E capacity’ .
ouise Robson, chief executive of Stockport NHS Foundation Trust said: “Winters are always a time of great pressure for the NHS, and our emergency services, but the impact of Covid-19 is certain to increase these pressures still further. So the additional funding is very welcome to help us cope with those demands this year.
“But our emergency care and pathology campus is set to improve our services in the long term, and our clinicians have worked hard on developing a model of care for the future in which this new building will play a key part.
“Our board’s approval of the outline business case is a huge step forward in the development of a campus that will transform emergency care at Stepping Hill Hospital.”