Urgent Treatment Centre moves to temporary location

SAME SERVICE, NEW TEMPORARY LOCATION NEAR BLACKPOOL ED/A&E.

As building work at Blackpool Victoria Hospital’s Emergency Village and Critical Care development progresses an important service will be temporarily moving to another location on the Blackpool Victoria site.

The Urgent Care Centre will relocate from its current position adjacent to the Emergency Department (ED), to a new temporary modular building within the nearby Whinpark 1 car park by the end of today, September 30.

The fully functioning service will be housed in Whinpark 1, just across from the Emergency Department, until early 2021 while the construction of a new Minors’ area begins as part of an overall expansion of the Emergency Department.

Emergency Village and Critical Care Development Lead, Nigel Fort, said: “By moving the existing Minors into an enlarged new location, currently occupied by the Urgent Care Centre, it will allow for the generation of five additional cubicles in Majors – the area that treats emergency patients.”

The Urgent Care Centre is run by Fylde Coast Medical Services.

Emma Edwards, Head of Fylde Coast Integrated Urgent Care Service, FCMS (NW) Ltd, said: “This is an exciting time for all that have been involved in the development of the Emergency Village as this move will provide the space required to commence the building work on the overall project.

“The services that will be moving as part of the Urgent Care Centre relocation are the Urgent Treatment Centre (UTC), Out of Hours Service and the DVT Service which have all occupied this space for some time.

“Patients who have a pre-booked appointment with any services and have been given a timeslot to attend, should come directly to the reception area in the new modular building.

“For patients who require urgent or emergency care and have not been directed to the UTC or ED, they should continue to attend the main reception area located at the front of the Emergency Department.

“Here patients will be greeted by our Frontline Reception Team, who will ask a few questions and then direct them to the most appropriate service for their presenting symptoms.

“We understand that this will feel different for both patients and staff working within those services and we will be supporting everyone involved. We encourage any comments or feedback to ensure the patient journeys are clear and as smooth as possible.’’

Blackpool Victoria Hospital’s Emergency Village and Critical Care development has focused on creating a better Emergency Department together with the Critical Care wards by upgrading facilities, adding capacity and significantly enhancing patient experience across the Fylde coast.

Emergency Consultant and Emergency Department Lead for the Emergency Village and Critical Care Development, Dr Adeline Israel, said: “The footprint of ED will temporarily shrink further due to these changes.

“It is vital for patients to use the ED for emergencies only. For non-emergency conditions they can try alternative pathways like NHS 111 First. On arriving in ED patients would be triaged based on their clinical condition and redirected to the appropriate facilities if not requiring emergency treatment. It would be best to call 111 or use the online services before presenting to ED.”

Following extensive work consulting with staff, patient panels and external agencies, the project’s Programme Board has now finalised plans and has submitted the business case for the capital funding from NHS Improvement to receive close to £13m to develop an ‘Emergency Village’ as part of a national fund to upgrade NHS Services in England.

Work on the wider development is scheduled to begin in Spring 2021. The Urgent Care Centre will eventually move back permanently within the Emergency Village footprint.

The 3D ‘fly through’ of the proposed new Emergency Department, featuring the new waiting and Minors area, can be viewed at https://youtu.be/RaoJeFwbkB8

You can also follow the progress of the project at Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BTHEmergencyVillage and Twitter: @BTH_EVandCC

Posted in Emergency Village.