Emergency Department in Grimsby Opens

A major milestone in a complex programme of improvements for North Lincolnshire and Goole NHS has been reached.

The new £17.9m Emergency Department at Diana Princess of Wales Hospital in Grimsby opened last week, completing a major phase in the transformation of emergency services at the hospital, providing more spacious and better equipped facilities for staff and patients.

Designed in collaboration with clinical teams, the 2,225sqm building provides greater capacity to meet current and future emergency care needs as well as space to flex in response to surges in demand. All areas are fitted out with the latest equipment and additional fundraising provided for extra touches to improve patients’ experience: illuminated ceiling graphics, wall art and an interactive floor in the paediatric waiting area.

The new adult waiting area has more than doubled its seating area and there’s a dedicated parent and baby room for breastfeeding and baby change. For children attending the ED there is a separate child-friendly wait area and dedicated paediatric rooms, keeping youngsters shielded from the adult environment.

Thought has been given too for those attending with mental health challenges; there is a separately furnished mental health room with en-suite where people needing further assessment can wait in a calm and dignified environment.

A major improvement from the old department is an increase in the size and number of patient assessment and treatment areas giving staff more space to work and better flexibility to deal with peaks in demand; there are now three dedicated ambulance handover bays and five Rapid Assessment Triage cubicles where previously both handover and rapid assessment were in one much smaller area. Other clinical spaces include Urgent Care Service Rooms, Resus, Majors Care and dedicated Paediatric rooms all fitted out with improved modern equipment. Monitoring and observation for patients has been improved throughout.

Now that the new Emergency Department is operational, the next phase of work at Diana Princess of Wales Hospital will begin with the old department being transformed to provide Same Day Emergency Care and Acute Assessment Units. These bespoke units will work together with the Emergency Department to provide patients with the right care from the right clinician even more quickly.

Work now begins to refurbish the vacated, existing space as a new Acute Assessment Unit, whilst construction continues on the equivalent Emergency Department works at Scunthorpe General Hospital.

Construction has been undertaken by Kier other members of the project team including WT Partnership, Mott Macdonald and Colour.