Aintree's Multi Million Pound Trauma Centre Opens
A multimillion pound Urgent Care and Trauma Centre has opened at Aintree Hospital.
The £35million hospital will treat the region’s most seriously ill and injured emergency patients. The first phase is now complete, with the new Emergency Department due to receive its first patients on Wednesday 10 June.
The new Emergency Department provides major trauma and resuscitation, major and minor illness and injury services.
80, 000 patients are treated at the Accident and Emergency department every year. Work on the new trauma entre started in March 2012.
Dr Libby Wilson, Emergency Care Consultant at Aintree University Hospital, said: “We’ve worked really closely with the construction team to keep the show on the road over the last 22 months. We had to ensure the construction, which at some points was literally two metres from the building we were working in, wasn’t affecting our ability to deliver safe and effective care. The construction team has been brilliant and you wouldn’t know they were there apart from the occasional bit of drilling and hammering!
“The new building has been designed with our patients at its heart. We care for tens of thousands of patients each year and many are seriously ill when they arrive, particularly those who come to us for trauma care. The new facilities match the excellence of our care, so this is great news for our patients and our staff.”
Steve Warburton, Acting Chief Executive of Aintree University Hospital, said: “We now have one of the most modern Emergency Departments in the North West. This investment supports the excellence of the clinical care provided by our teams, gives patients a much better environment and demonstrates Aintree’s commitment to getting it right for every patient, every time.”
The new Emergency Department has three large trauma bays, twice the size of those in the old department, and new equipment, including a CT scanner, additional ventilators and additional specialist monitors. This means lifesaving decisions and treatment plans can be made more quickly.
Patients will also now receive quicker access to senior medics, with designated areas for rapid assessment and treatment that will be led by senior clinicians, reducing the number of people who need to be admitted to hospital when they may not need to be.
The hospital’s existing Emergency Department will now be converted into a centre for minor injury and a medical assessment unit, with an observation ward for those patients who need extended care within the Emergency Department. A new 24-bed critical care unit above the new Emergency Department, giving swift access for the most seriously ill patients, completes the project and is scheduled for autumn 2016.
Rob Bailey, Contracts Manager at contractors BAM Construction, said: “It’s great to see all this work come to fruition. BAM are very experienced in building healthcare facilities, but it’s quite unique to work so closely with a live A&E department. That was something we were conscious of at all times, so for example during demolition we used negative pressure units, which are like big vacuum cleaners, to prevent dust migrating in to occupied areas and contaminating the hospital. It’s been challenging but the team at Aintree has been a pleasure to work with. We’ve all worked together so long now that we really are working as one team which is really rewarding and a fantastic position to be in.”