A turf-cutting ceremony has taken place to mark the official start of a £47 m scheme to build a new Urgent and Emergency Care Centre at Scarborough Hospital – the largest capital scheme ever undertaken by the Trust.
Enabling works in readiness for the build have already begun, with the new centre planned to open in Spring 2024. Attendances at Scarborough Emergency Department have increased at around five per cent year on year for over a decade. The new-build will provide much-needed extra space, and enable patients with anything from minor to complex needs to looked after by one team of healthcare professionals. The centre will have its own dedicated diagnostic zone providing CT scans, general X-ray, and ultrasound.
Dr Ed Smith, Consultant in Emergency Medicine and deputy Medical director at York and Scarborough Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: “When the existing Emergency Department opened at Scarborough Hospital in 1985 the annual attendance was 15,000 patients. We now see close to 70,000.”
The project includes a two-storey new-build combining and expanding the current Emergency Department, same day emergency care, and the acute medical unit. Alongside improving outcomes for the frail elderly, it will also ensure that some of the hospital’s most critically ill patients are cared for in one integrated clinical ward environment, rather than being moved to other wards. The second floor will house critical care services, and will increase bed capacity. The scheme also includes work to address essential site-wide engineering infrastructure.
