OUH given green light for Emergency Department expansion
09/11/2018
This article is more than five years old.
Building works for the Emergency Department expansion at the John Radcliffe Hospital are set to start soon after Oxford City Council signed off the plan.
On 7 November 2018 Oxford City Council's East Area Planning Committee unanimously approved the planning application.
Charmaine Hope, Head of Capital and Architectural Practice at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: "We are extremely pleased that Oxford City Council has granted planning permission for this extension to our Emergency Department. It is a significant building project with many complex elements, but on its completion, it should benefit the whole community."
Larry Fitton, Emergency Department Consultant at Oxford University Hospitals, said: "This is great news not only for Oxford University Hospitals but for the whole region we cover as an emergency department. The expansion of our Emergency Department is vital to ensure that high-quality care is delivered to our patients in the right time and in the right environment."
A better use of space, more diagnostic equipment, and improved dignity and privacy for patients as well as improved turnaround times for ambulances are among the benefits of the project. Building works are now set to start at the beginning of December 2018.
Oxford University Hospitals submitted a planning application in July 2018 to build the extension that will allow an extra nine bays for the immediate care of seriously ill patients.
The new space will include a paediatric resuscitation room and an isolation room with an adjacent CT scanner and control room as well as a nurses' bay and improved bereavement and relatives' rooms.
As a part of the expansion project, six ambulance spaces will be created with a more efficient drop off point at the entrance of the new building.
The project, consisting of the building extension and the refurbishment of the current Emergency Department will be carried out in different phases and is hoped to be completed by spring 2020.
The Emergency Department's planning application report can be found on Oxford City Council's website.