New £10m wards planned at hospital (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

New £10m wards planned at hospital

7:57pm Tuesday 12th August 2008 in

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Hospital bosses are planning to spend £10 million building two new wards to help ease winter pressures, improve infection control and meet tough waiting time targets.

A planning application has been submitted to Bradford Council asking for permission to build a new three-storey development at Bradford Royal Infirmary to house two new 28-bed elderly care wards.

Of the extra places, 24 will be in single bedrooms with en-suite facilities. The rest of the beds will be in four-bedded bays, each with its own bathroom.

The wards are planned to be the first phase of a larger development to improve facilities on the BRI site.

The existing wards vacated by elderly care will become available for use as ‘decanting’ space to allow refurbishment of other wards and improve patient areas.

The new wards are designed to help hospital bosses effectively manage the extra pressures they face during the winter months.

Dean Johnson, director of planning and performance, said the layout of the new wards would help prevent the spread of infection and the closure of wards due to diseases common in winter such as winter vomiting disease.

“Sometimes over the winter months wards have to be closed to new admissions because it has not been possible to isolate particular bays or beds,” he said.

“The new wards will give us greater flexibility and prevent the spread of infection down a ward.”

The wards will be built off-site and be similar in construction to the modular theatres and wards brought on to the BRI site in 2003.

They will be located in the grassed area behind the main entrance at BRI and will leave room for the development of one or two similar blocks in the future. It will also be possible to expand upwards.

Work is expected to start in September and the wards could be up and running by December.

It is part of a multi-million modernisation plan to transform the face of the city’s hospitals over the next few years.

Other building work currently taking place on the BRI site includes a new lecture theatre and the Listening for Life Centre, which will be home to the Yorkshire Cochlear Implant Service.

Work is also due to start before the end of the year on a new orthopaedic outpatients department at a cost of up to £1million. The development will include a new waiting area, clinic rooms and a volunteers’ coffee/tea bar.