New £47m emergency care centre plans at Scarborough Hospital get formal approval

The major investment in the town's emergency care facilities will see a new centre with an integrated critical care floor for intensive care and coronary care that almost doubles the current space.

Patient numbers at Scarborough Emergency Department have increased at a rate of around five per cent year on year for over a decade and the new build will provide much needed extra space, York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said.

Simon Morritt, the Trust's Chief Executive, said: "It is the largest capital scheme ever undertaken by this trust, and demonstrates our commitment to the long term future of Scarborough Hospital."

When the existing Emergency Department opened in 1985, the annual attendance was 15,000 patients per year. Now it is close to 70,000.

The new centre will also mean patients from minor to complex needs can be looked after in the unit by one team of healthcare professionals working together who will see more patients as quickly and safely as possible.

The centre will have its own dedicated diagnostic zone providing CT scans, general X-ray and ultrasound.

The project will include a two-storey new build combining and expanding the current emergency department, same-day emergency care and the acute medical unit, and improve outcomes for the frail elderly. It will ensure some of the poorliest patients in the hospital are cared for in one integrated clinical ward environment rather than being moved to other wards.

The second floor will house critical care services, bringing together all critical care patients and staff in one location. It will increase bed capacity which will help relieve the pressure on beds elsewhere in the Trust.

The scheme also includes improvements to the hospital’s electrical system, ventilation and drainage.

Mr Morritt added: "This development is extremely good news for our staff and for the community that Scarborough Hospital serves.

"It will move us forward significantly in the delivery of urgent and emergency services that are fit for purpose and of a quality that our staff, and our communities on the East Coast, can be rightly proud."

The announcement will come as a welcome relief for patients across the Yorkshire Coast who have seen departments reduced in previous years, after stroke services moved permanently to York in 2021.

Mark Steed, Director of Property and Asset Management at York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, told a meeting of North Yorkshire County Council's Scrutiny of Health Committee on March 11 that preliminary building work had begun ahead of the formal approval, as the Trust was confident the plans would go ahead.

The new care centre is scheduled to open in the Spring of 2024.

In December 2018 York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust was part of a successful Humber, Coast and Vale Integrated Care System (ICS) bid for capital to support the transformation of urgent and emergency care at Scarborough Hospital.

Last month a new £500,000 helipad was opened at Scarborough Hospital that will allow night landings for the first time and larger helicopters.