More than £14 million is being invested by the Welsh Government to extend and reconfigure parts of the Grange University Hospital emergency department, Health Minister Eluned Morgan has officially announced.
The funding will improve the quality of patient and staff experience and ensure the right facilities are in place to consistently deliver safe and timely care to those who need to use the service.
It will see the main waiting area significantly extended and the current waiting area reconfigured into a rapid assessment area, where patients can receive examinations and investigations quickly and be monitored for short periods.
The Grange Hospital has seen unprecedented demand at its emergency department since its opening in November 2020, with the impact of Coronavirus contributing to this issue.
Current attendances are around 263 patients per day on average. Original plans were for 100-170 attendances per day. This has resulted in overcrowding and uncomfortable conditions for patients and their relatives, and difficult working conditions for staff.
The new design of the emergency department will double the current waiting area capacity, increase triage capacity, offer greater visibility of the waiting room to support monitoring of patients and add more space for ambulance handovers and for clinical assessment and treatment.
Health Minister Eluned Morgan said:
The emergency department at the Grange hospital is under extreme pressure.
This considerable investment will result in improved patient safety, comfort and privacy. It will also provide an improved working environment for staff.
We continue to work with the health board to support them in delivering actions and improvements related to urgent and emergency care. This includes offering safe alternatives to emergency departments and hospital admissions, ensuring only the people who really need to be in hospital are there and receive the best outcomes possible.
Nicola Prygodzicz, Chief Executive of Aneurin Bevan University Health Board, said:
We are very grateful to obtain approval for the funding from the Welsh Government to extend the Emergency Department at The Grange University Hospital.
Since its original design, the demand on the Emergency Department has changed significantly and far more people are self-presenting than was originally anticipated.
Having taken into account this additional need, we have put plans in place to extend the waiting area capacity and assessment space to meet the growing needs of our population.
We expect the new extension will greatly improve the experience of our patients when they need to attend the Emergency Department at The Grange University Hospital and we’d like to thank them for their patience while the building work is carried out.