The Trust plans to transform its buildings and facilities to ensure they are fit for 21st Century healthcare.
Stem Cell Transplant Unit
Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust is investing £2.7million in new facilities which will include 10 new single rooms for patients who need protective isolation because their immune systems are depleted due to chemotherapy treatment. For slideshows and further details of the investment in our stem cell transplant services follow this link »
Investing in Cancer Treatments
As part of our ongoing commitment to improving the quality of care offered to patients and developing services for cancer and neurosurgical patients, the plan was to replace three radiotherapy machines.
The Trust has already replaced one in the 2010/11 financial year and the installation of the next new treatment machine is a priority for patients needing radiotherapy in this financial year. In addition, the Trust has invested in a £200,000, advanced high-dose rate (HDR) brachytherapy radiation machine, for the treatment of gynaecology patients.
The Trust has invested £1 million in the latest Digital Breast Screening technology and refurbished the Primrose Breast Care Unit. Additionally, the Trust has invested significantly in the community for breast screening at the Guildhall in Plymouth to provide an improved environment with easier access.
Other projects include:
- £1 million replacement of medical equipment, for instance blood pressure machines and ultrasound
- Remedial building works, including engineering and electrical
- Improvements in IT systems, including bar coded wristbands and blood tracking.
Projects still under review
The Gateway Programme (the main entrance)
The main entrance is the facilitator to the urgent care pathway. However, what the Trust needs to determine first is the space requirements for urgent care which now includes consideration of additional space requirements to support our Major Trauma Centre status . At the moment, the Trust is undertaking work to look at how the urgent care pathway works, between the emergency department, diagnostic and interventional imaging, clinical decisions unit (CDU), medical assessment unit (MAU) and the surgical assessment unit (SAU). This will enable the Trust to see how they work as they are now, if they could be reorganised within their current space or whether they would need to move into the space currently occupied by the main entrance on level 6.
This is one of the crucial factors determining the need for a new main entrance. If it is deemed that the urgent care needs to move within this space, then a new main entrance would be required. However, this will not happen within this financial year (2011/12).
Children's Hospital
As with the work required for the urgent care pathway, more work needs to be undertaken to look at children's services to see how they work as they are now, if they could be reorganised within their current space or whether they would need to move into a purpose built space.
By the Autumn, the Trust will have its five year plan and will be able to provide more detail on the provision of future developments.