NHS Ayrshire & Arran’s Chief Executive John Burns and Doug Keillor, Regional Director of contractors BAM Construction, met this week to sign the construction contract for the pioneering Building for Better Care programme. The formal signing session was a major milestone in the programme, which will see a new Emergency Department at University Hospital Ayr and two new Combined Assessment Units at Ayr and University Hospital Crosshouse.
Phases 1 and 2 of Building for Better Care (BfBC) will provide new, modern, fit-for-purpose facilities at the ‘front doors’ of University Hospital Ayr and University Hospital Crosshouse. The ‘front door’ is the term used to describe the point of entry for patients coming to hospital for anything other than a scheduled appointment. The new facilities will make it possible to patients to get rapid assessment by senior clinical staff at the earliest point of their arrival in hospital. Phases one and two of the Building for Better Care Programme include the following new facilities: • Development of Combined (Medical and Surgical) Assessment Units (CAUs) at University Hospitals Ayr and Crosshouse, in line with the requirement of the Royal College of Physicians that all hospitals should have an acute medical unit to deliver safe and effective emergency medical care. • A new Emergency department (A&E) at University Hospital Ayr, with resuscitation bays, high care areas and cubicles, fully integrated with the minor injury unit and NHS Ayrshire Doctors on Call (ADOC).
Visitors to University Hospital Ayr will soon see signs of construction starting, with the erection of fencing and portacabins for the contractors’ compound from Monday 19 May.
Forty-six permanent car parking spaces opened at the back of the hospital on Monday 12 May, and signage will redirect traffic around the hospital site where necessary. Work will start at University Hospital Crosshouse in mid-June. Chief Executive John Burns said: “Signing the contract this week was a major landmark and the culmination of several years of work to improve the quality of our services. Building for Better Care will give us the fit-for-purpose physical environment to support the improvements we are already making in the ways patients are assessed, treated, admitted or safely discharged when they come to hospital in an emergency. Of course there will be short-term disruption while construction gets under way, and I would be very grateful for everyone’s patience during this phase.” Co-signatory Doug Keillor, Regional Director of BAM Construction, added: “BAM Construction are delighted to be working with NHS Ayrshire & Arran on the construction of the new Emergency Department and Combined Assessment Unit at University Hospital Ayr and the Combined Assessment Unit at University Hospital Crosshouse. These facilities will provide improved healthcare facilities for the local communities and BAM look forward to creating opportunities during the construction period for local suppliers and contractors.” You can read the full business case for Building for Better Care is available on NHS Ayrshire & Arran’s public website by clicking on ‘New builds’ on the home page of www.nhsaaa.net. For further media enquiries about this topic, please contact:
May Smith, Head of Communications, NHS Ayrshire & Arran, University Hospital Crosshouse, Kilmarnock KA2 0BB. Telephone:
01563 826107.
[email protected] . www.nhsaaa.net
