University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust has marked a major milestone with construction now underway on a new £140 m Emergency Care Building at Derriford Hospital.
The four-storey facility, which is the first Wave 1 scheme in the national New Hospital Programme to begin main construction, will transform the way urgent and emergency care is delivered for people across Devon and Cornwall.
Procured under ProCure23 (P23) with Mace, and delivered by contractor Willmott Dixon, the new building will replace the hospital’s current 50 year old Emergency Department with a modern, purpose-built facility designed to meet the needs of a growing population and deliver care more efficiently.
Due to open in 2028/29, the Emergency Care Building will nearly double the capacity of the existing department and provide new spaces that support patients, families and staff.
The development will feature:
- A larger Emergency Department on the ground floor, with the existing space reconfigured to create a dedicated Paediatric ED.
- A Same Day Emergency Care (SDEC) unit on the first floor, enabling patients to receive rapid assessment and treatment without admission.
- Advanced diagnostic and surgical facilities on the upper floors, including four state-of-the-art Interventional Radiology theatres and five new surgical theatres for both emergency and planned procedures.
Stuart Windsor, Programme director for Our Future Hospital, said: “It has been a long journey to get to today, but we will now finally see the new Emergency Care Building start to rise from the ground. This important building will provide the people of Plymouth and the wider Devon and Cornwall peninsula with a facility they can be proud of, and will finally give our clinicians the space to care.”
The new facility will link with the existing Derriford Hospital, ensuring easy access to specialist wards and services. It will also include modern imaging technologies, patient recovery areas and improved workspaces to enhance staff wellbeing.
The groundbreaking ceremony was attended by staff, local MPs, and long-serving Emergency Department volunteers, who took part in a symbolic turf-cutting to celebrate the start of works.
The new Emergency Care Building forms part of the Trust’s wider plans to future-proof healthcare facilities across Plymouth, ensuring services remain safe, sustainable and fit for generations to come.
