Medway opens the doors to new £11.5million Emergency Department building

Date: 08 November 2018

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On 8 November, the new Emergency Department building at Medway Maritime Hospital will be opening its doors to admit new patients.

The new building will house a range of newly built, state-of-the-art facilities that will support the Trust’s award-winning Emergency Department team to deliver the best of care to our most unwell patients. These include:

  • Seven new resuscitation bays, including dedicated bays for paediatric patients (children) and bariatric patients (high body weight).
  • Four Rapid Assessment Area bays, where a dedicated, consultant-led team will review patients who come to the department by ambulance to provide faster diagnosis.
  • Four newly-built ‘majors’ bays to treat both ambulance and ambulatory (walk-in) patients, bringing the total majors capacity for the department to 16 bays.
  • A dedicated entrance for ambulance crews to bring in their patients into the department. 

All of the new areas have been fitted out with latest equipment, including ‘smart’ Omnicell drug cabinets. Above the clinical area, new office space has been created for the Emergency Department team to support closer working and collaboration and freeing up existing office space for other uses.

John O’Neill, Clinical Lead Matron, said:

“The facilities in the new building are focused on providing improved care for those patients who need true emergency care. 

“The resuscitation unit treats the most seriously unwell patients, who come to us with life-threatening injuries and illnesses that need immediate care and stabilisation. The Rapid Assessment Area provides speedy diagnosis of patients who arrive by ambulance to ensure that they get the care that they need as quickly as possible.

“These improvements will make a significant difference to those who need our care the most.”

Dr Andrew Stradling, Clinical Co-Director for Acute Medicine, said:

“The new building is a major part of the Trust’s plans to improve not just emergency care but our services across the board. The emergency department is where many of our patients begin their journey with us, so making sure that their care starts off from a strong foundation and they are given the right treatment in an appropriate environment from the very beginning is very important. This fantastic new facility will help us make sure that the people of Medway and Swale get the great quality care that they are entitled to.”

All areas have been finished to the highest build standards thanks to the hard work of the Trust’s estates and facilities team. Further refurbishment works to the existing emergency department space are planned for 2019 and 2020.

Lesley Dwyer, Chief Executive at Medway NHS Foundation Trust, said:

“This has been one of the biggest redevelopment projects that the Trust has undertaken in over a decade, creating an outstanding facility for our clinicians to care for patients.

“Staff across the Trust have worked incredibly hard to deliver this building: our clinicians who were key in making sure that it would provide an environment that would allow them deliver the best care that they are capable of providing; as well as our estates, facilities and pharmacy teams who, along with a range of other professional staff across the Trust, worked tirelessly to ensure that the building we have now got has been completed to the highest standards. I am immensely proud of all of their hard work, and I am sure that our community feel the same.”

  • Summary:

    On 8 November 2018, the new Emergency Department building at Medway Maritime Hospital will be opening its doors to admit new patients.