A ‘future-proof’ urgent care facility

A £35 m project to create what the Aintree University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust says will be ‘a new, world-class urgent care and trauma centre’ at Aintree University Hospital just north of Liverpool is nearing its conclusion, with the final phases due for completion by the year-end. As HEJ editor, Jonathan Baillie, discovered on meeting with construction manager – North West at BAM Construction, Rob Bailey, who is leading the construction scheme, and Paul Fitzpatrick, director of Estates and Facilities at the Trust, a complex scheme which has involved transferring some departments to temporary facilities, and ensuring that clinical activities continue uninterrupted throughout, has progressed on schedule thanks to effective multidisciplinary and multi-party collaboration. 

Aintree University Hospital provides general acute services to some 330,000 people in North Liverpool, South Sefton, and Kirkby, and specialist services including major trauma and orthopaedics, stroke, cardiology, head and neck surgery, treatment for upper GI cancer, hepatobiliary, liver, and endocrine services, complex obesity care, respiratory medicine, rheumatology, ENT, ophthalmology, and alcohol services. The major teaching hospital employs around 4,500 staff, and, since the Trust became a Foundation Trust on 1 August 2006, has seen over £120 m invested at the site. 

When I met with Rob Bailey at the BAM Construction site offices at the hospital, he explained that, on its completion, the new Urgent Care and Trauma Centre, (or ‘UCAT Centre’), would be the region’s most modern Emergency Department, offering ‘state-of-the-art’ treatment facilities. One of the key drivers behind its construction was the hospital’s recent designation as a major trauma centre for Cheshire and Merseyside. Set to be completed by the end of December this year, the new two-storey UCAT Centre will house the hospital’s Trauma and Emergency Department, plus a new Critical Care and Cardiology Department, theatres, a CT scanner, and a Fracture Clinic, all co-located with a dedicated helipad.