The entire project has involved a reworking of our former urgent and emergency care services, with the aim of improving the patient experience and journey through the hospital, in addition to alleviating pressure on our emergency department ensuring patients do not experience long waits in our A&E.
These ‘Big Changes’ were required as a response to the ever growing demand the hospital is seeing on its A&E department and to safeguard its planned surgical activities, to help prevent cancelled operations.
Since opening at the end of September we’re delighted to report that our IAC is really making an impact with a dramatic drop in medical outliers (patients on the wrong type of ward for their health needs) from an average of 60 per day to around six per day.
Meanwhile up on the third floor, staff on our AMSS unit are reporting an average length of stay of 60 hours for patients – we aim for a maximum of 72 hours only.
Our new fifth floor 54-bed integrated surgical unit for general, vascular and urology surgery has also been open since the beginning of October.
Our new stroke unit is now situated on the eighth floor, in the fully refurbished ward 8B, with the orthopaedic trauma ward settled up on the ninth floor as the final phase of the project fell into place last week (w/c Monday 19 November 2018).
This £1.8 million capital investment project is a major improvement for services at Pilgrim, which is part of the Trust’s ambition to transform the hospital into a centre of excellence for planned surgery as part of its 2021 strategy.
For more Big Change information visit the Trust website here>>