AN EXTENSIVE £110 million redesign of Ysbyty Glan Clwyd will bring the latest standards in medical treatment to the St Asaph hospital.
The wide-reaching revamp, which ties in with the removal of asbestos from the hospital, will also see a new emergency quadrant set up and wards redesigned to improve the quality of patient’s stays at Glan Clwyd.
The plans will also separate emergency and day-visit facilities in an effort to increase treatment standards and cut the time patients spend in hospital.
This week, The Journal spoke to project managers and clinical leads on the project to find out more about the planned changes at Glan Clwyd.
Dr Eileen Williams, Clinical Lead for the redevelopment project, said that plans began formulating more than a decade ago, with improvements to both emergency and in-patient treatment and the speeding up of care at the heart of the hospital’s improvements.
“We started by looking at what the key service mode would be, and what would be the ethos of how we would deliver care and how patients would flow though the hospital,” Dr Williams said.
“We came up with the key principles behind the project, which were delivering a high quality clinical care, improving safety and making sure the project suited the needs of the most vulnerable in society.”
“One of the key elements of the modern way of working is to keep emergency and planned patients separate. If you’re on a ward, it’s difficult to get a good sleep at night because there’s patients coming in and out, so we’ve tried to keep the emergency patients away from the in-patients.
“We also wanted to keep patients who will stay in the hospital apart from those who will just be visiting in for the day. Keeping people separate will make the work more efficient and make sure people with the same kind of treatment will be kept together.
The upgrades, which are scheduled to take place in stages over the next seven years, will see roughly 70% of the hospital renovated, with improvements also made to Glan Clwyd’s energy efficiency and general appearance.
Project manager Nigel Morris said that while the full-scale improvements tie in with the removal of asbestos work, improvements were due at the 1970s built hospital, with the plans bringing Glan Clwyd up to the highest standards of modern healthcare.
“The original hospital was designed in the 60s and built during the 70s, and obviously there been medical advances which have come along,” he said.
“Departments are perhaps not in the positions they should be now, so were trying to make sure we bring them up to modern day work and future proof them as much as we can.
One of the most noticeable improvements will see emergency facilities relocated to a new “emergency quadrant” at the rear of the hospital.
The re-designed Emergency Department will bring all urgent care facilities together, cutting the distances patients in need of critical attention will have to travel, as well as providing further treatment to patients on especially designated emergency wards.
Dr Williams said: “Instead of it just being an A&E, where people who have come in for treatment and then go up to wards upstairs, they will now come into the Emergency Department where there is a ward for medical emergency patients, there’s a ward for surgery emergency patients as well as coronary care for people with heart attacks, and the GP out of hours is all part of it.
“It’s all core located, and means that all the emergency doctors are all in the same place on one floor.
“Were designing a staff rest room where people will mix together from different specialties. You might have a very junior doctor who’s having a cup of tea with someone who has been a primary care doctor for 20 years or so, and they can talk together and share eachother’s experience.
“It also means if doctors and nurses are there together, they can talk about the patient, and can meet with others too and improve communication.
“The patients want this too – they asked why you have to go to one area and then another, so we’ve brought it all together.
Next week, The Journal will look into improvements to Glan Clwyd’s in-patient facilities, as well as detailing how project managers have scheduled the improvements to be introduced over the coming years.