King George Hospital, run by the Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust, is set to have a new location for its Urgent Treatment Centre (UTC), it has been announced.
New infrastructure is close to being completed at the hospital in London, with the final touches being applied to its relocated UTC, which will be moved out of the Emergency Department.
Work initially started on the UTC in September 2020 and it’s expected to be completed this week.
Vikki Butler, Director of Clinical Service Reconfiguration, said: “This project has allowed us to make good use of the space available at King George Hospital. Moving the UTC out of our Emergency Department means there is more space in the ED which we are now reconfiguring.”
The trust said relocating the UTC is seen as vital for lifting pressures off the emergency department and that the staff entrance has also been moved to improve the one-way system currently in place.
Work on another of the Trust’s hospitals, the Queen’s Hospital, will also begin this month in the Children’s and Young People’s Assessment Unit (CYPAU). It’s hoped this will bring the Trust in line with national standards.
“Lots of children needed to be assessed for more than four hours but not as inpatients,” Vikki said. “This will be a purpose-built space to assess children, without them needing to be admitted as an inpatient. Instead, they can be treated and return to the comfort of their homes.”
The CYPAU project is set to be completed by May 2021.
