Plans For Multi-Million Revamp At Caithness General

NHS Highland is working up plans for a multi-million revamp of Caithness General Hospital in Wick.

The health board's asking the Scottish Government for an estimated £5 million to work on upgrading the 74-bed rural general hospital will get under way next year and be completed within two years.

Project lead Pam Garbe said: “The hospital has served the community well since it was opened in 1985 and we aim to ensure that it continues to play a key role as an important and valued part of our estate.

“Changes in demand and in the way we deliver healthcare are such that we have to look at how the hospital is configured and how we can adapt it so that it can better meet 21st century needs.

“Since the hospital was built there has been little change in its infrastructure, despite significant changes in services and demand. It’s become clear that the present model and lay-out compromise care and patient flow and that we need a major revision of the way the hospital functions.

“Significant work has taken place over the past 12 months which could see a number of key improvements, including increasing bed spacing, increasing the percentage of single rooms, creating a surgical unit on one floor and extending the accident and emergency department, co-locating out of hours and transforming in-patients. We aim to continue that progress.”

And she added: “There have been suggestions recently that NHS Highland wanted in some way to downgrade or even close Caithness General. I hope our far-reaching proposals to redesign and upgrade the hospital show that nothing could be further from the truth.”

The plans include:

• Relocating the Bignold, a 24-bedded surgical ward, to the hospital’s top floor

• Relocating the Henderson maternity facility to a temporary site between the exiting unit and the operating theatre

-Converting the Rosebank Wing, the hospital’s medical and high-dependency unit, into an acute assessment unit to improve patient care, patient flow and clinical assessment, and to facilitate earlier discharge

• Relocating the Queen Elizabeth Wing, an 18-bedded assessment and rehabilitation unit, to the present Bignold Ward to provide a step-own/rehabilitation was to improve patient flow and safety

• Extending the A&E department by relocating out-patients to the ground floor

• Relocating the renal unit to improve access, provide an isolation facility and amalgamate with other day-case services

• Relocating physiotherapy and occupational therapy areas

Pam Garbe continued: “With an ageing population, recruitment and retention challenges and changes in medicine, technology and social care, we cannot stand still, and the changes being considered reflect that.

“But our proposals for the hospital should not be seen in isolation and are part of a wider body of work, the Caithness Redesign Project, which is reviewing the entire range of health and adult social care services provided by the health board in the area.”