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New A&E Unit for Lanarkshire
06/09/2002
A new £3.7m purpose-built A&E unit - which will help
speed up and streamline emergency treatment for patients in
Lanarkshire - was officially opened at Monklands Hospital
today.
The unit, which will help staff meet the ever-increasing
needs of patients at one of the country's busiest A&E
departments, was funded through £2.7m from the Executive's
£11m A&E national modernisation budget, and a £1m
investment from NHS Lanarkshire.
Officially opening the new unit, Health Minister Malcolm
Chisholm said:
"A&E departments are one of the busiest areas within
the NHS, with staff working hard to provide high quality
treatment and care in a fast-moving and often highly
pressurised environment. We want to support them in our
combined efforts to further improve treatment and waiting
times by both modernising A&E premises and streamlining
the way in which emergency services are delivered.
"Monklands, which last year had 68,000 attendances at
A&E, is a prime example of the pressures now being
placed on NHS staff and the excellent work being done by
them and NHSScotland to rise to those demands and ensure
patients are seen as quickly and efficiently as
possible.
"This purpose-built unit attracted the largest single
allocation from the Executives £11m modernisation budget
for A&E - an investment programme which is helping to
improve and redesign A&E provision throughout Scotland
and which will reduce waiting times for patients. For
example this programme is helping to fund a new four-bay
resuscitation suite and the redesign of existing A&E
facilities at the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary in Grampian, and
the recent refurbishment of A&E facilities at the
Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy.
"Like these projects, the Monklands Unit will help
improve the quality of care available in A&E, both by
providing addition space and by enabling services to be
redesigned in a more streamlined way. In particular, I know
this unit has already enabled the Trust to implement a new
system for GP referrals, which brings together the
necessary diagnostic tools, medical expertise, nursing and
paramedical care into a new emergency receiving unit,
offering patients a more simplified and speedier journey of
care.
"The enlarged and modernised unit will also create a
more pleasant environment for staff, patients and their
families - something which is particularly important given
the difficult circumstances under which people may be
admitted to A&E.
"I would like to commend both staff and the Trust for
the hard work, careful planning and close co-operation
which has taken place to create this first class A&E
department, which will be well-placed to drive forward
further improvements in local emergency treatment for
patients in Lanarkshire."
This unit at Monklands replaces previous facilities
which opened in 1987 but which the hospital had outgrown
due to local increases in the number of patients attending
A&E in recent years. It was paid for through £2.7m from
the Executives £11m A&E modernisation budget and
through a £1m investment by NHS Lanarkshire.
The new purpose-built unit includes new separate areas
for patients with minor injuries and those with more
serious injuries or medical problems, dedicated X ray
facilities and better provision for children attending the
department. The project has also allowed the development of
an Emergency Receiving Unit to accept most GP referred
patients directly for investigation and treatment, helping
to streamline their journey of care.