Horton Emergency Department work begins
12/10/2020
This article is more than three years old.
Improvement work to enhance urgent and emergency care at the Horton General Hospital is underway.
The project at the Banbury hospital, run by Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, began today (Monday 12 October 2020) and should be fully operational by the end of the year.
A total of £750,000, funded by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), will be spent to expand the Majors area (where most seriously ill patients are taken to be assessed) and separate paediatric and adult spaces in the Horton General's Emergency Department.
The newly created children's area will provide a dedicated area for the care and treatment of all children.
Four additional cubicles will also be created through the relocation and re-provision of staff offices, including a dedicated infection control bay.
Sam Foster, Chief Nursing Officer, said: "We are delighted that work to expand and improve the Emergency Department at the Horton General Hospital has begun.
"This is an important project as it enables us to expand our emergency care for patients in north Oxfordshire. These improvement works will make the Horton Emergency Department a better place to work and provide better facilities for our staff to deliver care. I am particularly pleased that we will be able to provide a better environment for children needing emergency care."
Michelle Brock, Matron of the Horton General Hospital's Emergency Department, said: "Having four extra bays means that people coming into hospital for emergency or urgent treatment can feel confident that we are taking the extra steps necessary to keep them, their families, and our staff safe. The extra bays should also reduce waiting times.
"The new paediatric bays will also allow us to provide care in child friendly facilities that will be less stressful for our young patients and their families."
The Trust was awarded the £750,000 as part of a £300 million package announced by the Department of Health and Social Care in August 2020 to help NHS trusts prepare for winter.
The work at the Horton follows the start of a similar project at the John Radcliffe Hospital's Emergency Department in Oxford in September 2020.