New plans have been approved that will bring together several Liverpool University Hospital Foundation Trust (LUHFT) services aiming to reduce duplication and improve patient care.
The plans will generate changes to breast and general surgery, nephrology, urology, and vascular surgery at the trust. The teams working across each of the five services will begin to further develop plans as part of an ongoing process to look at how LUHFT can deliver better quality of patient care across the three sites, Aintree, Broadgreen and the Royal Liverpool.
The proposals began with a public consultation which attracted more than 2,800 responses from the public. A full report into the consultation can be found here.
The proposed changes will mainly centre on surgery and inpatient care.
On 4 October, as part of the changes, the first patients were welcomed at the new Royal Liverpool University Hospital. The trust anticipates over 360 patients to arrive for outpatient services; these patients will be the first to use a new digital check-in process which aims to speed up the appointment process.
The new Royal has been purposefully designed to reflect a patient’s journey, placing key specialisms adjacent to each other to provide faster access to specialist care. The new hospital now boasts 640 beds with en-suite facilities, state-of-the-art operating theatres for both inpatients and day-case surgery, and 40 critical care beds.
In addition, a new clinical research facility is hoped to place the LUHFT as a national and international leader in clinical trials and studies.
Speaking of the ongoing developments, Dr Jim Gardner, Chief Medical Officer at LUHFT, said: “The ambition is to provide the best care possible and ensure that everyone using our services has access to the same, high-quality care, regardless of which of our hospitals they use.”
Speaking of the new Liverpool Royal Hospital, Health Minister Nick Markham said: “From today, patients will benefit from the new state-of-the-art outpatient facilities at the newly opened new Royal Liverpool University Hospital. Not only will this hospital improve care for patients across the city, but staff will also be able to access specialist medical equipment and a world-leading research facility.”
