The Queen's Medical Centre's Same-Day Emergency Care unit is about to undergo a £20 million upgrade
A new facility is to open at Queen's Medical Centre which will take the pressure off emergency care at the hospital. Expansion works are underway which will double the size of the Urgent and Emergency Care unit at the hospital, meaning 150 patients a day can be seen instead of the current 70.
A temporary facility is set to open on Wednesday, May 20, to prepare and clear the way for the new same-day emergency care facility atThe new facility will be a more streamlined space, allowing medical staff to cut wait times and alleviate corridor care. , welcomed the idea of the new facility after reporting chest pains the night before . She described her experience as "torture" due to the long waits.
She said: "I came in last night with chest pains. Since 6pm last night, it's just been a long, slow process.
"It was really busy last night, there wasn't a seat free. It slowly got better, but by 7am I was brought here.
" Talking about her hopes for the new facility, Clare said: "It will make a massive difference, I don't know if you have been to the A&E department at the weekend when it's really busy, it's just torture, especially when you are in pain or really poorly, there are some sad sights when you are sat there waiting. A full package of £20 million of funding is expected in July, with construction planned to start in August.
The unit will be fully operational by March 2027. The finished facility will include five assessment rooms, three treatment rooms, recliners for infusions, and 11 cubicles. While the initial works are underway, the SDEC will relocate to the temporary facility on B Floor in the West Block.
Head of Clinical Services and Clinician, Amber Bristow, said: "We've managed to get £5 million in funds for enabling works, and the remainder is just under £20 million, which once governance processes go through, we are hoping to get that approved in the coming months .
"We were in an old space on A-floor, it was an old ward that was used, SDEC shouldn't be a ward, the whole process around it needs to be that you are not in a bed, you are ambulatory, we are getting you up and home that, hopefully within eight hours, so we needed the money to build a proper same day emergency care unit. "Corridor care, there is no one thing; this is not a golden ticket to alleviate, it's one of our schemes to help corridor care.
"We have been shown some data recently that people who come into the hospital could be converted to a SDEC stay, and then those patients who need a longer stay would take that bed instead of them. Head of Clinical Services Amber Bristow pictured at the new, temporary Same Day Emergency Care unit at the Queen’s Medical Centre.
"You know I work in the emergency department day to day, which is a hard place to work. Whatever we can do to get people seen who don't need the emergency department elsewhere is a plus, because then we concentrate on seeing the patients who need the life-saving treatment that the emergency department can offer.
The expansion also includes an adjoining diagnostics suite, along with an ultrasound and CT scanner, to reduce the need for patients to travel around the hospital as much. The Programme Director for Urgent and Emergency Care, Jenni Twinn, said: "We are looking to expand our SDEC at NUH. Currently, we have a small space here at NUH. The new unit will accommodate 150 patients per day.
"Our estate at the moment is challenging and isn't always as nice as we want it to be, so our new environment will hopefully come across as very calming and spacious for our patients and our staff. "It should be intuitive, and the flow should naturally be around us.
You come in, have the treatment, and then you go home, and that should all work for you, and it will enable you to not have to go all over the hospital to access care, as everything you need should be nice and close by. "
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