Significant building work is being carried out across our two hospital sites to improve the facilities we have for patients. One of our major schemes, the relocation of the Urgent Treatment Centre (UTC) at King George Hospital (KGH), is in the final stages of completion while another, the Children and Young People’s Assessment Unit (CYPAU) at Queen’s Hospital, started this week.

Work on the UTC began in September 2020. Vikki Butler, our Director of Clinical Service Reconfiguration, said: “This project has allowed us to make good use of the space available at King George Hospital. Moving the UTC out of our Emergency Department means there is more space in the ED which we are now reconfiguring.”

“The UTC is run by our colleagues at PELC and will provide treatment for minor injuries and illnesses. This development has been co-designed and delivered in partnership with them.”

Work is on-going in the atrium at KGH to facilitate the entrance to both outpatients and the new UTC. The staff entrance has also moved to improve one-way flow. We are very grateful to all staff and patients for bearing with any noise and disruption while this is completed. Several teams have also been hugely accommodating and supportive in relocating, or reconfiguring their space to make this possible. Particular thanks go to cashiers, overseas payment team, medical records, outpatients, G4S transport, PALS and League of Friends.

The work on the CYPAU at Queen’s Hospital began this month and will bring our Trust in line with national standards. We will have increased capacity to deliver a more sustainable service and improve patient and staff experience.

“Lots of children needed to be assessed for more than four hours but not as inpatients,” Vikki said. “This will be a purpose-built space to assess children, without them needing to be admitted as an inpatient. Instead, they can be treated and return to the comfort of their homes.”

The work requires space in the Maternity car park for a building compound and for the staff entrance to move. The teams who have had to relocate to make this build possible include Cardiac Rehab, FOPALS, Therapies, and the ED Virtual Ward. We are hugely appreciative of their flexibility to make this service improvement for patients possible. The CYPAU project is anticipated to be completed by the end of May.