New ICU and ward building

Our new state-of-the-art £16m ICU and ward decant facility was opened in summer 2022, and created a bigger, modern critical care facility and extra ward space, which is currently home to the hospital’s respiratory ward.

The new modular build, which won the Project of the Year category at the prestigious Health Estates and Facilities Management Association (HEFMA), is one of the first in the NHS that consumes no fossil fuels, with heating and hot water provided by renewably sourced electricity.

The two-storey building, which opened in summer 2022,  is connected to the existing hospital corridor at ground floor level.  The critical care unit has 15 beds and is over 1500m2 in size, giving staff the space needed to provide vital care.

A key feature of the new critical care unit is that the patient care and treatment areas are significantly bigger, in line with modern healthcare building standards. The previous unit was designed as a standard ward in the 1970s and no longer fit the current space that is needed for equipment and technology surrounding a patient critical care bed.

Funding for the modular building was given to support the work being carried out to address the significant structural issues caused by RAAC.

The extra ward space supports the ward decant work being undertaken through the RAAC programme. A ward decant is where an empty ward is used to house another ward, so that the ward that has moved can be temporarily closed for structural repairs.