WORK is underway on the Countess of Chester Hospital’s £13 million new wing to help treat desperately ill patients.
The two-storey unit will include a new critical care facility and a 28-bed inpatient ward, which will house a new bariatric unit, offering a specialist weight loss surgery service at the rear of the Liverpool Road site.
The planned care ward and a critical care ward will incorporate a new integrated 21-bedded critical care unit on the first floor, and a 30 bedded elective care ward on the ground floor, which will also host the new bariatric surgery service.
Bosses say the building – expected to be open to patients in November – is the first stage in an exciting new period for the trust
as it develops its capacity requirements for the future and improves its facilities to provide patients with continued excellent care.
A trust spokesman said: “It will improve our elective capacity, and give us the future flexibility we need to cope with winter pressures, and develop new services further.”
Relatives of patients being cared for in intensive care will also benefit from the new facilities proposed in the new building.
The development will also incorporate much-improved facilities for the families of patients being cared for on the critical care unit, including the ability to stay overnight in two comfortable
en-suite bedrooms, thanks to the fundraising efforts of the Relative Comfort Appeal.
Also included in the trust’s £20 million programme to be rolled out over the next three years is an extension to the Jubilee facility to provide increased day case and endoscopy capacity along with a small extension to house a second MRI Scanner, and refurbishments of Wards 40, currently HDU/ITU, and 41.