A+E moves to new Royal Liverpool Hospital
The move to the new site is nearly complete
Last updated 20th Oct 2022
The New Royal Hospital has opened its A+E department to patients overnight.
It’s one of the final steps of the hospitals 24 day plan to fully transition from the old building to new.
Construction of the new hospital started in 2014, but it was hit by a series of delays, including the collapse of original contractor Carillion in 2018.
The five-year delay in relocation has seen spiralling costs and disruption, with many staff are excited the turmoil is nearly over.
Barry Scott, deputy head of therapies agreed it has taken some time but says it’s worth the wait.
Barry said: “Being from Liverpool myself I’m really proud of this building. Our community deserves this, our community needs this. It’s been a long time planning and with the delivery process but it’s finally here and we’ve got it.”
The main section of the hospital welcomed its first patients on Tuesday 4 October, and in the run up to that more staff were taken on.
Chief Executive, James Sumner told us: “In terms of staffing we’ve gone out and done a huge recruitment campaign for the new royal.
“We’ve been really fortunate to not only recruit hundreds of new nurses but also hundreds of healthcare type roles and we've managed to do that within a lot of the Liverpool population so creating lots of employment for local people which is great.”
Therapy manager Claire Collie said the city deserves the new building: “The Cities needed a big new hospital for a long time. The Old Royal has really done its time, it's done us proud over the last few years but it's definitely done its work now and we are ready to provide exceptional care in this brilliant building.”
The new department promises patients a “unique” experience.
James Sumner said: “Moving our A&E department is the final piece of the jigsaw for the move into our state of the art new Royal Liverpool University Hospital. Our new A&E is a massive improvement on the old one with more assessment areas and operating theatres and diagnostics close by, supporting faster access to essential services for emergency patients”.
Patients are being advised if you are unsure about where to go for support, they should call NHS 111.