Wolverhampton's new A&E to be one of finest in UK

Official approval has been granted for the New Cross Hospital project by the Department of Health, as well as £10m in funding.

The rest of the cash will be made up from the hospital's surpluses, with work officially starting on Monday.

The three-storey centre will include a badly-needed A&E unit, a walk-in centre and other primary care services.

Its first floor will house a Clinical Decisions Unit – for patients with relatively minor injuries and ailments – as well as an outpatients' clinic.

Other areas of the building will include dedicated radiology and x-ray facilities for emergency patients along with consulting space for GPs.

The overall aim to to bring all emergency services – which are currently spread out across the News Cross site – under one roof.

It is intended that overcrowded waiting rooms will be a thing of the past as patients who automatically go to A&E when they don't need to will be redirected elsewhere in the building.

David Loughton, chief executive of the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust, today said time was of the essence as the builders moved in.

"This is the answer to our problems," he said.

"We have worked long and hard to secure this improvement for the people of Wolverhampton and surrounding areas.

"Our emergency department has been under immense pressure and it is a source of great pride and optimism to see work starting.

"In just over a year's time we will have one of the UK's most advanced emergency buildings and urgent care systems, supporting our staff with the very best facilities and enabling us to put our patients first.

"That is very good news for Wolverhampton."

The current A&E unit is seeing 40,000 more patients than it was designed to cope with.

But the new unit will have 40 per cent spare capacity, based on current demand at New Cross.

Record patient numbers have flooded the hospital in the past year and bosses are bracing themselves for a further influx with the potential closure of Cannock Hospital's minor injuries unit.

Kier Construction director David Sizer spoke of his delight at the firm securing the contract.

He said: "We are delighted to have been appointed by the trust to build this important emergency healthcare facility.

"We have successfully completed over 130 projects through the P21+ framework to date and we are confident that, by working collaboratively with the trust, we can deliver excellent new healthcare facilities for Wolverhampton and surrounding areas.

"These will both ease the pressure on the emergency department and enable the trust to provide even better patient care."

The existing A&E has previously been labelled as 'unfit for purpose' by Mr Loughton.

Staff have come under increasing pressure, with patients often left in corridors to be treated.

To help cope in the meantime before the new centre opens bosses splashed out £2.5m on a 10-bed extension of the current A&E.

And a £500,000 Clinical Decisions Unit was also unveiled last year.

But the capacity issues remain and chiefs are patiently waiting for the new unit - which will have an A&E three times the size of the current one - to open.

It comes just weeks ahead of Wolverhampton health bosses taking over the running of the Cannock site.

The hospital will be taken over by bosses from the trust when the troubled Mid-Staffordshire NHS Trust, which currently runs it, is dissolved.

Patients will be ferried between New Cross and Cannock on free shuttle buses.