New £10m A & E plan for New Cross
Tuesday 26th July 2011, 10:01AM BST.
A new £10million accident and emergency department will be created at a Black Country hospital because the current one cannot cope with surging patient numbers.
Detailed plans for the new A & E department at Wolverhampton’s New Cross Hospital are now being drawn up and will be unveiled within months.
David Loughton, head of the Royal Wolverhampton Hospitals NHS trust which runs the hospital, labelled the current A & E department as “unacceptable.”
Mr Loughton believes it’s in need of rapid change in order to improve care for patients.
The hospital is under growing pressure due to more people turning up in A & E. Earlier this month, New Cross experienced its busiest ever day in A & E with 354 patients needing to be seen.
It’s hoped to demolish and rebuild A & E for around £10million.
Chief executive Mr Loughton said: “Within 12 to 18 months we will have to have a new A & E.
“The current situation with patients milling around in the corridor is unacceptable.”
Mr Loughton confirmed that money will be spent in A & E to improve the department before the demolition starts.
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Excellent news for Wolverhampton’s citizens and about time, too. That said, whatever the planned size of the new A and E is, DOUBLE IT, I say -to make allowance for even bigger numbers in the future.
Waiting for treatment for hours on end -as doubtless we’ve all done- is depressing and quite akin to feeling part of a human cattle market. In fact, I wonder just what the TRUE attendance figure would be if so many people weren’t put off visiting A & E simply because they can’t face having to take a tent and sleeping bag with them? It’s all grossly unfair on the hard-pressed staff, too.
And to think I recall waiting only 20-30 mins, on average, at the old Royal Hospital (albeit that was over 30 years ago!). Anything much above that time limit was regarded as a big wait! Time to get into the 21st century…so roll on the new A & E, even if it costs twice the quoted figure!
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Is it me or does £10m sound quite cheap?
The trouble with New Cross is that it’s a patchwork quilt of new and old. It’s always a make do and mend situation to me, the whole site isn’t fit for purpose.
There’s also a total lack of parking spaces on the site. Does that mean then that if they are to rebuild it might take out some of the parking spaces or helecopter pad to build it?
Will they install more parking spaces to cope with the larger numbers that will attend A&E?
It would be great if the whole hospital could get knocked down and rebuilt.
I can say all this as I was born there and have been numerous times.
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Yes, £10m sounds cheap, Tom. Too cheap for this rip-off day and age, I’d say. I’m very pleased to hear of the news but already have reservations about what we’ll be getting for our money (both size-wise and facility-wise).
Agree, too, about New cross being a hotch-potch, patchwork quilt of a site. There’s a wonderful Heart & Lung Centre (the envy of most of the UK, in fairness) and the highly-prized Eye Infirmary, too. However, having a ‘multi-hospital’ site was sheer bad planning. It needs bulldozing and rebuilding from scratch -for the most part- as you suggest. However, that won’t happen in these most cash-strapped of times.
Diverting most patients to New Cross -instead of having satellite hospitals dotted around the city centre, as used to be the case- means concentrated traffic issues for the Wednesfield area (Wedesfield road most especially) and inconvenience to those members of the public who don’t live on that side of the city.
As for parking, let’s not go there, Tom! The present car parks are a joke and far too expensive to use. There again, as public funds run our hospitals, WHY should hard-pressed taxpayers and motorists be paying parking fees anyway? As many have said previously, it’s a “tax on the sick” -well, the visitors, at least! This disgrace should never have been allowed to happen, but who’s going to change things as long as it continues to makes money?
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10 million for and new a&e sounds great until you realise it cost 22million spent on a bus depot which a third of all buses won’t use, 2 million on a new bridge 10 foot away from the old one (and the
Glass pattern does not match up), glad to see money is being spent on Wolverhampton, but not in the right places
I think, the town centre is a pig sty, full of druggies, drunks and wasters, yet you do not see how beautiful some of the buildings and history are, the town need a major overhaul and the summer row would have give it the boost it needed, now that’s flat on its face, I think it’s gonna get worse before it gets betters, let’s hope we stay in the premier league to attract new investment into the city, up the wolves
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Could not agree more.
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they should never of done away with the royal hospital We are a city and only have new cross its nothing more than a joke 1 hospital to cover the city and then they ask why they car’nt cope
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RWHT recently merged with the PCT. Acute conditions are seen at New Cross and then transferred to Specialist Care Teams in the community. Wolverhampton only needs 1 Hospital- as it has numerous Health Centres.
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The satellite health centres don’t cover major emergencies. The old Royal Hospital was more easily accessible from all corners of Wolverhampton and minutes can make a difference to urgent cases. If there is to be only one hospital, we need to have 24 hour minor injury and assessment units strategically placed in all four corners (NSEW); this allows people to be seen in a timely manner, assesses potential major cases for onward transmission (and perhaps provides interim treatment) AND frees up the resources at New Cross to deal with the REALLY urgent cases of life and death
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I’ve been so tempted in the past to offer mouthfuls of verbal abuse and insult to the staff and the organistion of the New Cross Hospital, and with just cause I may say.
However, perhaps a little money and a great deal of good planning could improve at least the A&E part of the hospital and offer a real health service to patients. I’m still left with the remark made by a member of the nursing staff to my aged father, “a cup of tea Granpa”. This shows that the level of respect and training was, and I’m sure still is today, seriously at fault.
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