New five-storey critical care building planned for Gloucestershire Royal Hospital
Summary
There are plans for a new five-storey critical care building at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital. Hospital chiefs say the modular building is needed in Gloucester to help meet the increase in demand expected in the coming years. The Department of Critical Care at the Great Western Road hospital currently provides 19 beds and no longer has the capacity to meet existing clinical demand.
Details
Demand modelling suggests the hospital will need capacity to accommodate a yearly predicted growth in demand of three per cent, according to Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust . And the plans submitted to Gloucester City Council say 24 critical care beds in open wards and 12 isolation beds are needed within the facility.
The new building will also have supporting spaces including stores, dirty and clean utility, patient testing as well as staff spaces including offices, rest and welfare facilities to support staff in shifts. And relative spaces include waiting rooms, overnight accommodation and kitchen. There will be an increase in medical, nursing and admin staff of around 20 per cent to operate the new unit.
The proposals also say the Tower Block building needs urgent modernisation as several essential mechanical and electrical systems no longer comply with current standards and regulations. “A new modular building means that the urgent improvements to the Tower Block building can be completed without the DCC being closed down during the works as patients and staff will decant to the new building,” the plans read.
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“No other suitable facility is currently available to the trust. “The Tower Block as a whole is also separately being improved by the Trust with replacement fire alarm infrastructure, nurse call systems and upgrades to wards.
“This urgent programme will take four years and will involve each ward including the DCC being decanted for six months, meaning the new build DCC unit needs to be operational as soon as possible.
“Due to these requirements a modular solution has been selected by the trust to ensure fast delivery.” It is essential that the new facility is ready to receive patients when the works to the DCC in the Tower Block begin to ensure there is no period when there is no critical care at the hospital, the plans continue. And a modular building design has been chosen to expedite the works.
The new facility will receive patients from the DCC in the Tower Block as well as elsewhere in the hospital such as the emergency department, resus, obstetrics, theatres and other wards including respiratory high dependency and paediatrics City planners are expected to consider the scheme by November 3, 2026.
Report source: Gloucestershire Live