New ambulance handover area for QEH’s Emergency Department gets the go-ahead

The Queen Elizabeth Hospital King’s Lynn NHS Foundation Trust will be beginning a much needed project to expand its Emergency Department (ED) this Autumn including the creation of a new ambulance handover area.

Costing nearly £1.8m, the expansion agreed by the Board at its meeting earlier this week, will help to reduce long ambulance waits, allowing ambulances to get back on the road more swiftly; and will enable patients to be seen and clinically assessed more quickly, improving patient safety and experience and reducing overcrowding in the ED.

Caroline Shaw CBE, Chief Executive of QEH, said: “This is excellent news for patients, visitors and colleagues who work in our Emergency Department. The Department has outgrown its original footprint and is no longer fit for purpose to meet the needs of the increasing numbers of patients we have attending on a daily basis.

"As a result of this investment, we will have fifteen instead of six cubicle spaces to allow paramedics and ambulance staff to more readily transfer the care of patients, allowing quicker handovers and enabling patients to be seen and clinically assessed more quickly, improving patient safety and experience.”

Other benefits of the expansion include two additional rooms that meet the needs of patients presenting with mental health needs and who may require admission to a specialist mental health facility, a new dedicated space providing privacy and dignity for patients experiencing early pregnancy issues, and improved space for walk-in patients to be triaged, seen and treated.

This important work is another significant step for QEH in modernising our hospital and helping to achieve our ambition to be the best rural District General Hospital for patient and staff experience.