In the monthly Ward Round column, acting deputy CEO and director of finance at the QEH Chris Benham discusses plans for a new hospital…
I’m sure many of you will have been following the coverage in the media around Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (RAAC) following the Government announcement relating to the closure of some school buildings across the country. You will all be aware that RAAC is in much of our estate here at the QEH so the associated issues with this form of concrete is something we’re very familiar with.
I would like to reassure all patients and their families that we have a robust rolling installation programme of steel and timber support props and ‘failsafes’ to maximise safety for our patients, visitors, and staff. We have a team of skilled engineers carrying out daily structural checks across the hospital. We appreciate it can be disconcerting for our patients and visitors when they see and hear building work taking place during their visit. Teams across the Trust are doing their utmost to keep disruption to a minimum while still delivering the highest possible levels of care.
Last month we went out to locations in West Norfolk and parts of Cambridgeshire for the first round of engagement sessions which focused on our new hospital plans. Across the four events, our dedicated new hospital team welcomed more than 300 attendees who listened to our presentation and engaged in a question-and-answer session. We took people through our journey so far, key milestones in the planning and process stages as well as enabling works the Trust will be undertaking to make a new hospital a reality.
Members of the public asked a wide range of questions in the sessions – with many asking how the building would be constructed and what materials will be used, what green environmental factors are being considered, would the new building feature additional services not in the current hospital and the process we have gone through to select the site for the new building.
We’ve published slides from the event as well as a new frequently asked question section on our QEH New Hospital website – www.newqeh.org.uk.
Thank you to everyone who attended these events. We don’t have all the answers at the moment – we are at the start of a long journey, and we won’t know some of the details. What we do want to do is ensure members of our community feel as informed as they can be – these events aren’t being done in isolation and we will repeat this process as we progress. If you missed these sessions please do keep an eye out for future events.
This week we hosted our Annual Members’ Meeting at Downham Town Hall – focusing on Reshaping Our Services. If you missed the opportunity to attend you can read papers on our website along with information presented.
On behalf of everyone here at Team QEH I’d like to thank all of you for your continued support, it really does make a difference.
