Plans for a new Urgent and Emergency Care Centre at Scarborough Hospital have been formally approved.

The £47m investment in the town’s emergency care facilities will see a new centre with an integrated critical care floor for intensive care and coronary care that almost doubles the current space.

Attendances at Scarborough Emergency Department have increased at a rate of around 5% year on year for over a decade and the new build will provide much needed extra space. It will also mean patients from minor to complex needs can be looked after in the unit by one team of healthcare professionals working together who will see more patients as quickly and safely as possible. The centre will have its own dedicated diagnostic zone providing CT scans, general X-ray and ultrasound.

The project will include a two-storey new build combining and expanding the current emergency department, same day emergency care, the acute medical unit and improve outcomes for the frail elderly.  It will ensure some of the poorliest patients in the hospital are cared for in one integrated clinical ward environment rather than being moved to other wards.

The second floor will house critical care services bringing together all critical care patients and staff in one location. It will increase bed capacity which will help relieve the pressure on beds elsewhere in the Trust.

The scheme also includes work to address essential site-wide engineering infrastructure which will see huge improvements to the electrical system, ventilation and drainage.

Simon Morritt, Chief Executive, York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: “This development is extremely good news for our staff and for the community that Scarborough Hospital serves. It will move us forward significantly in the delivery of urgent and emergency services that are fit for purpose and of a quality that our staff, and our communities on the East Coast, can be rightly proud. It is the largest capital scheme ever undertaken by this trust, and demonstrates our commitment to the long term future of Scarborough Hospital.”

Enabling works in readiness for the build have already begun, and the new centre is planned to open in the Spring of 2024.

In December 2018 York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust was part of a successful Humber, Coast and Vale Integrated Care System (ICS) bid for capital to support the transformation of urgent and emergency care at Scarborough Hospital.

06 April 2022