New Emergency Department waiting room opens as next phase of improvement works start
Earlier today (Wednesday 10 June), we were delighted to open our new Children’s Hospital Emergency Department (ED) waiting room as work began on the next exciting phase of our multi-million-pound improvement programme.
Kindly supported by our Charity, as part of its £2 million Emergency Department Appeal, the area, located on the ground floor of our Loveday Street Clinical Building, has been designed to mirror the ‘natural world’ theme currently being created in the hospital’s new main entrance.
Thanks in part to a £100,000 donation from the Morrisons Foundation, it boasts more space, larger triage assessment areas and more.
Temporary seats are currently in place, with more comfortable and family-friendly seating due to arrive over the coming weeks, as well as new play and sensory equipment.
Phase Two of the ED improvement scheme, which is expected to take around three to six months and be completed in time for winter, has now kicked off. Once finished it will offer us:
- Three new Resus areas, around twice the size of our current bays and all featuring the very latest life-saving technology.
- New and improved high-dependency areas.
- A family and bereavement room.
- A dedicated mental health space to provide a calm, safe and de-escalating environment for individuals in crisis.
- A Changing Places accessible toilet facility.
- A baby change and breastfeeding room.
Changes to entrance and exit points – Emergency Department and Parsons House
As these improvements take place, temporary changes to entrance and exit points into our Parsons House block are in place.
The entrance and exit to ED are now via the main doors of the new Loveday Street building – where our Medicine Chest Outpatient Pharmacy is accessed.
Children and families visiting for appointments in our Fracture Clinic and Physiotherapy can access through a door a few yards away from their usual entrance/exit just inside the tunnel into Parsons House. From that point, the tunnel is closed.
Patients, their loved ones and colleagues visiting and leaving the Clinical Decision Unit (CDU), Paediatric Assessment Unit (PAU) and Medical High Dependency Unit (MHDU) on the ground floor of Parsons House, as well as Ward 15, Ward 15 annex and Surgical Day Care above, are being directed to use our main hospital entrance/exit points of Matron’s Garden and Waterfall House.
Extensive signage, including lift covers and directional floor lines, are in place to support those we care for and support.