This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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New A&E Unit for Lanarkshire
06/09/2002
A new £3.7m purpose-built A&E unit - which will help speed up and streamline emergency treatment for patients in Lanarkshire - was officially opened at Monklands Hospital today.
The unit, which will help staff meet the ever-increasing needs of patients at one of the country's busiest A&E departments, was funded through £2.7m from the Executive's £11m A&E national modernisation budget, and a £1m investment from NHS Lanarkshire.
Officially opening the new unit, Health Minister Malcolm Chisholm said:
"A&E departments are one of the busiest areas within the NHS, with staff working hard to provide high quality treatment and care in a fast-moving and often highly pressurised environment. We want to support them in our combined efforts to further improve treatment and waiting times by both modernising A&E premises and streamlining the way in which emergency services are delivered.
"Monklands, which last year had 68,000 attendances at A&E, is a prime example of the pressures now being placed on NHS staff and the excellent work being done by them and NHSScotland to rise to those demands and ensure patients are seen as quickly and efficiently as possible.
"This purpose-built unit attracted the largest single allocation from the Executives £11m modernisation budget for A&E - an investment programme which is helping to improve and redesign A&E provision throughout Scotland and which will reduce waiting times for patients. For example this programme is helping to fund a new four-bay resuscitation suite and the redesign of existing A&E facilities at the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary in Grampian, and the recent refurbishment of A&E facilities at the Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy.
"Like these projects, the Monklands Unit will help improve the quality of care available in A&E, both by providing addition space and by enabling services to be redesigned in a more streamlined way. In particular, I know this unit has already enabled the Trust to implement a new system for GP referrals, which brings together the necessary diagnostic tools, medical expertise, nursing and paramedical care into a new emergency receiving unit, offering patients a more simplified and speedier journey of care.
"The enlarged and modernised unit will also create a more pleasant environment for staff, patients and their families - something which is particularly important given the difficult circumstances under which people may be admitted to A&E.
"I would like to commend both staff and the Trust for the hard work, careful planning and close co-operation which has taken place to create this first class A&E department, which will be well-placed to drive forward further improvements in local emergency treatment for patients in Lanarkshire."
This unit at Monklands replaces previous facilities which opened in 1987 but which the hospital had outgrown due to local increases in the number of patients attending A&E in recent years. It was paid for through £2.7m from the Executives £11m A&E modernisation budget and through a £1m investment by NHS Lanarkshire.
The new purpose-built unit includes new separate areas for patients with minor injuries and those with more serious injuries or medical problems, dedicated X ray facilities and better provision for children attending the department. The project has also allowed the development of an Emergency Receiving Unit to accept most GP referred patients directly for investigation and treatment, helping to streamline their journey of care.