STRUCTURE: Heatherwood and Wexham Park Foundation Trust is investing more than £2.5m in reconfiguring wards, in anticipation of a rise in emergency attendances.
The trust is expecting a rise in demand following the closure of the emergency medical centre at nearby Wycombe Hospital, operated by Buckinghamshire Healthcare Trust.
The investment will pay for an expansion of Wexham Park Hospital’s acute medical unit, to provide a rapid assessment area with a connected short stay facility. The unit will take patients with a medical condition rather than an injury caused by an accident, along with those referred by GPs.
The trust is recruiting extra consultants and nurses to cover the expanded unit, while support services such as diagnostics and portering will also be increased.
It is hoped that by providing a daily consultant led service the trust will increase the frequency of consultant reviews in the early stages of a patient’s stay, which could lead to a cut in the time patients spend in hospital.
The AMU is planned to be relocated to sit next to Wexham Park Hospital’s accident and emergency department.
Source
Source date
October 2012
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