April 27, 2021 2.47 pm This story is over 35 months old

New £3.8m Lincoln hospital critical care ward gets approved

Extra beds are “urgently required”
| Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite

Plans for a £3.8 million critical care extension to Lincoln County Hospital have given the go-ahead, creating 12 beds for people who need to be on a ventilator due to respiratory issues, such as those caused by COVID.

United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust (ULHT) applied to the City of Lincoln Council to install a new 12-bed modular critical care assessment ward off the existing frailty ward.

Funding for the works will come from a mixture of £7 million urgent and emergency care government allocation funds and also from the trust’s own internally generated capital funds.

Simon Evans, ULHT’s Chief Operating Officer said: “This will be used as a specialist respiratory support unit to provide our respiratory team with the capacity to deliver specialist care, such as non-invasive ventilation.

“The facility is all side rooms, reducing the need to enter unnecessarily and controls the spread of infection.”

He added: “This will provide a fantastic facility to deliver a modern, high quality respiratory service.”

Planning documents said: “These additional beds are urgently required by Lincoln County Hospital, which has only been amplified by COVID-19.”

According to plans, each new bed will come with its own room, along with ensuite facilities and lobby area. This will include facilities such as staff rest rooms and kitchen as well as utility spaces and there will be a total of 32 rooms.

The build will include a new external corridor linking the two wards, two new ramps to be used as fire escapes and new landscaping outside the ward.

A flavour for what the Lincoln Hospital extension will look like.

The plans are part of overall works for the trust’s accident and emergency department upgrades.

They include:

  • A new purpose-built Urgent Treatment Centre, incorporating a new entrance into the Emergency Department – this has already been submitted to the City of Lincoln Council.
  • A new waiting room, providing more space to allow for social distancing
    Additional clinical spaces where patients will be seen and treated
  • A new paediatrics area with its own dedicated waiting room, treatment cubicles and a sensory area
  • Additional treatment rooms for mental health patients.
  • A new sensory room for dementia patients
  • A new ambulance bay created outside the front of the department with entrances directly into the resuscitation and majors areas of the department
  • Additional clinical space, meaning that the emergency department will be able to accept patients from ambulance crews with improved speed and safety

The proposed layout of the new ward.