Army to stage 'live exercises' ahead of Scarborough Hospital's new £47m emergency care centre opening

Ahead of the completion of a new urgent and emergency care centre at Scarborough Hospital, NHS staff will stage a live exercise to test proposed new models for delivering healthcare services.

An update on the progress of the scheme to build a new urgent and emergency care centre at Scarborough Hospital was given at a meeting of the York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust on Wednesday February 22.

The £47m project, the largest capital scheme ever undertaken by the Trust, is on track to be completed by spring next year.

According to a report presented at the meeting, new models of care are being developed for sites at Scarborough Hospital as well as York Hospital, where an extension of the emergency department is ongoing.

To support this, the Trust has been working with colleagues in the Army Medical Services Training Centre to plan “a live exercise to test and validate the proposed models”.

The exercises are set to replicate the layout of the new floor plans in the training facility and staff will be faced with several scenarios using “casualty actors” to provide realistic challenges for the staff.

Scarborough team members will undergo the training later in the year, the report added.

Members of the Trust’s board were told that the current focus of the works in Scarborough is to complete the floor slab, stair and lift cores and the structure of the building.

The report said: “In the next couple of months there will be considerable work ongoing to complete the external envelope of the building which will allow the internal work to fit-out the building to commence in earnest.

“A lot of work is taking place regarding the scheduling of new equipment that needs to be procured in addition to identifying existing equipment that can be transferred to the new facilities.”

Speaking at the meeting, Simon Moritt, chief executive of the Trust, said: “With inflation and other things, there is a serious issue in terms of staying within the capital envelope for the scheme.”

He added: “But obviously, that should not be at the cost of access or indeed key clinical areas that are fundamental to the delivery of a critical care centre.”