A new accident and emergency department at Scunthorpe General Hospital has been approved by council planners.
North Lincolnshire Council have approved the plans for the development, which includes a new A&E and a bespoke acute assessment unit.
It will be funded by the department of health and social care, as well as NHS England, and has been designed to reduce stress on patients and staff during peak times.
There will be an increased waiting area, as well as more cubicles for patients, a dedicated ambulance bay and a play area for younger patients or visitors.
The new site can be found on land which is currently being used for offices and car parking, but it will soon form a brand new emergency department in Scunthorpe.
The office block will be demolished to make way for the department, despite being one of the oldest hospital buildings at Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Trust, though bosses are keen to preserve the site’s heritage however possible.
W.H. Butterick’s sketch of Scunthorpe Hospital (left) and the entrance to the admin block that will be demolished for the new A&E facility. | Photo: Lincolnshire Chronicles & NLaG
The building dates back to the 1920s and actually formed part of the original Scunthorpe and District War Memorial Hospital, so a new heritage wall is being created within the main building.
Historical photographs will be hung up on the wall, and people are being encouraged to email over any old photographs or memories of the hospital.
Director of estates and facilities, Jug Johal, the senior responsible officer at NLaG, said: “I’m delighted that we have now got over this final hurdle in the planning stages of the programme and work can start in earnest to bring these new facilities online.
“The improvements we will make will help us to lower waiting times in A&E and diagnose patients more quickly as a result of faster access to specialist clinicians.
“The number one priority for our teams is to give you the best possible care and these works will give them the space, equipment and facilities you need to do that and to ensure we got this right, we have worked closely with clinical colleagues throughout the design process.”
You can watch a walkthrough video showcasing the plans for the new departments below:
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A 38-year-old man from a North Lincolnshire village charged with murder will face an eight-day trial later this year.
Emergency services were called at 4.23am on Saturday, July 2 to reports that a man was seriously injured on South Parade in central Doncaster.
The 28-year-old victim was taken to hospital but was sadly pronounced dead a short time later.
A post-mortem examination found that he died of injuries to his head, chest and abdomen.
Formal identification of the victim is yet to take place, South Yorkshire Police said earlier this week.
Steven Ling, 38, of Park Drain, Westwoodside in North Lincolnshire, has been charged with murder and was remanded in custody to appear at Doncaster Magistrates Court on Monday, July 4.
Ling later appeared at Sheffield Crown Court on Tuesday, July 5 for a plea and trial preparation hearing.
No pleas were entered during the hearing, but an eight-day trial was set for November 28, 2022. Ling has now been remanded into custody until the next hearing.
The Lincolnite went on a ride-along with a Lincolnshire Police officer from the force’s Roads Policing Unit (RPU), which aims to disrupt criminals’ use of the roads and reduce the number of serious and fatal accidents.
The team will support the county response including local policing, neighbourhood policing and criminal investigation too.
Operations first began in Grantham in January this year and started in Louth earlier this week with a sergeant and nine PCs based in both locations.
The Lincolnite went out on a ride-along with PC Rich Precious from Lincolnshire Police’s Roads Policing Unit. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
PC Rich Precious has been a police officer for 22 years after joining the force in 2000 and he recently rejoined the Roads Policing Unit, working out of Louth.
PC Precious, who also previously worked as a family liaison officer for road deaths for 16 years, took The Lincolnite out in his police car to the A1 up to Colsteworth and then back to Grantham. He described that particular area as “one of the main arterial routes that goes through Lincolnshire”.
PC Rich Precious driving down the A1 up to Colsterworth. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
Speaking about the new Roads Policing Unit, he said: “It’s intelligence led policing, it’s targeted policing in areas that have been underrepresented in terms of police presence, on the roads certainly, over a number of years.
“We’re hoping that the development of this unit will help address that balance, and look towards using the ANPR system to prevent criminals’ use of the road, and to identify key areas or routes where there’s a high percentage of people killed or seriously injured on the road, what we commonly refer to as KSI.
PC Precious is helping to keep the roads safer in Lincolnshire. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
When asked if he thinks the new team will help reduce the number of serious and fatal accidents in the county, he added: “That’s what the the unit designed for. Sadly, in Lincolnshire our road network does seem to incur a number of those KSI accidents year on year, and we need to reduce that.
“I’ve worked additionally in my roles as a family liaison officer on road death for 16 years, so I’ve seen first hand the impact that road death has on families and victims families.
“I know it’s important that we try and reduce those because, it’s very sad to see how a fatal road traffic collision can affect a family and the victims of that family.”
Marc Gee, Inspector for Lincolnshire Police’s Roads Policing Unit. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
Marc Gee, Inspector for the Roads Policing Unit, told The Lincolnite: “Every day there will be officers on duty from both teams and they’ll cover the whole county or the county’s roads.
“Eventually, we’ll have nine police cars and we’ve got six motorbikes. We’ll be utilising them with as many officers as we can every day basically to make our roads safer and enforce against the criminals who feel like it’s okay to come into the county and use our road for criminal purposes.”
Lincolnshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner Marc Jones at the launch of the force’s Roads Policing Unit. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite