Major building work is underway at St Mary’s Hospital to improve the environment for both patients and staff.
The improvement work, costing over £1million, is funded through the Trust’s capital investment programme and a £714,000 capital grant from NHS Improvement and is scheduled to take place between 12th February and 4th May 2018.
At the end of the work patients will be cared for in better surroundings and the working environment for staff will be enhanced. As well as the Emergency Department, the work extends into the Diagnostic Imaging department and will also see the creation of a permanent location for the Ambulatory Emergency Care (AEC) service to which GPs can refer directly.
This weekend (24th/25th February) will see the removal of the former Beacon Centre modular cabin.
Mr Robin Beal, Consultant in Emergency Medicine said:
“This work should improve the flow of patients through the Island’s health system and provide Island GPs with improved access for referring patients to the medical teams via an Ambulatory Emergency Care service. It will provide investigation and treatment to individuals in the unit who may be discharged within the day avoiding admission to hospital.”
The improvement works are being phased to ensure ‘business as usual’ as far as possible for the Emergency Department and other services.
As at any other time if you need urgent care but it’s not an emergency then phone the Island-based NHS 111 service. They can advise on what to do and which service to attend.
Maggie Oldham, Chief Executive at Isle of Wight NHS Trust said:
“This is a major improvement project for the Trust and we’re grateful to NHS Improvement for providing the additional funding which has enabled us to do so much more. Inevitably there will be some disruption during the 12 weeks but we have carefully phased the works to keep any inconvenience to a minimum.”
