Hull's New £12m A&E Opens

It's taken seven years but Hull Royal Infirmary's new £12m A&E department finally opens today.

It's double the size of the old facility and means the city now has one of the largest emergency departments in the country.

It comes after the hospital recently struggled to cope with a rise in emergency admissions - resulting in some of the worst patient waiting times.

But Dr Mark Simpson, Consultant in Emergency Care for Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust, hopes the new centre can help address that problem. He told Viking FM:

“This is a really important occasion for staff in the Emergency Department, the Trust as a whole, and for patients across Hull and the East Riding. Our staff have always strived to deliver the very best possible care, but in the past we haven’t always had the facilities to enable us to deliver the quality of care to which we aspire.

“The design of the new department will allow us to provide higher levels of privacy and dignity to patients and their families whilst in our care. It also provides us with state-of-the-art resuscitation facilities in what we now believe to be the largest resuscitation department in the UK.

“Having contributed to its design and layout, staff are very much looking forward to the new department opening and to working within a much better clinical environment. The new ED has been a long time in the making, but these are exactly the type of facilities which we need here in Hull and which local people deserve.”

Duncan Taylor, Director of Estates Development for Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust says:

“This is a very proud moment for myself and my team. We’ve been working on this project for seven years, ensuring it has been built to the best specification possible and liaising closely with ED staff along the way to ensure it meets their needs.

“In a department where mere seconds can really be the difference between life or death, it was vital that we got the layout of the department agreed and equipment sited in ways which would enable our clinicians to do their jobs quickly and effectively.

“All of the ED staff have been extremely accommodating whilst we worked to deliver the project. Members of the project team have worked incredibly hard to ensure the work has been completed on time and to the standards our clinical staff expect, and I’d like to personally thank both groups of staff for their support during this time.”

Dr Jacquelyn Smithson, Medical Director for the Trust’s Medicine Health Group says:

“This is a proud moment for all of those who have been involved the design and construction of the new facilities, as well as our ED staff who have continued to work admirably in what have admittedly been difficult surroundings, particularly over the last 8 months.

“It will no doubt take us a few days to acclimatise to the new ED, however, the staff are really looking forward to this and to working within a department which befits the life-saving treatment they provide.

“It is no secret that our Emergency Department has been experiencing significant pressures over recent months, and whilst our facilities are now state of the art, we do still need to ensure they are kept free for only the most seriously ill and injured people. As we move into the new department, we would once again urge people to consider community options first, such as walk-in centres, pharmacies and GP appointments, before coming to ED.”