The Emergency Department at Dorset County Hospital has recently been upgraded under the Procure22 programme of works with a £15m NHS England funding grant.
The scheme has made some significant improvements to the existing Emergency Department (ED) that will help increase capacity in the short-term and also pave the way for bigger plans to expand the hospital over the next five years.
The scheme aimed to enhance infection prevention and control measures and increase the capacity of the resuscitation and treatment areas. It is here that Cableflow bedhead containment solutions were selected as core contributors to these priority objectives.
The original ED was built to cater for approximately 22,000 attendances per year, however in a normal year it is closer to 50,000 attendances so was substantially under providing and frequently pushed to it’s limits.
The refurbishment included two extensions – one in the courtyard at the rear of ED and one at the front entrance – and improvements to the existing ED. Overall the scheme has provided more clinical spaces, including larger resuscitation rooms and bigger cubicles, improved patient flow whilst providing staff with better support facilities.
The scheme presented challenges in terms of maximising space within an established building design to satisfy modern regulatory compliance for bedhead services. Cableflow worked with the design and construction team to develop a solution that managed all of the challenges and provided optimum clinical delivery in these areas.
