A new ward with 20 beds and three new theatres could be built at Nottingham City Hospital to help meet demand and aid “significant deterioration” in the estate.
Nottingham University Hospitals board papers reveal the new £7.8m ward would address “significant bed shortages across the Trust”.
Three new theatres are also planned due to “ageing infrastructure” at City Hospital.
The new ward would be built on a vacant site near the intensive care unit and would be completed in early 2022.
Nottingham University Hospitals, which also runs the Queen’s Medical Centre, has a “considerable elective backlog”, including cancer cases.
Board papers from an Extraordinary Trust Board meeting stated: “The pressure on elective beds is challenging and at particular risk over winter of being flipped to provide medical beds.
“There is a considerable elective backlog with patients at increased risk of harm due to long waits for surgery.
“This build not only provides additional surgical bed capacity but also unlocks cross-campus moves that are in line with Tomorrow’s NUH strategy.
“This case supports delivery of elective and cancer surgery in line with recovery plans.”
Separate plans discussed during the same board meeting would see City Hospital increase the number of theatres by three and the construction of an Enhanced Perioperative Care unit (EPOC) – for surgical patients who cannot be cared for on a general ward.
Board papers show that the move would “improve resilience for theatre due to ageing theatre infrastructure” .
They added: “Currently we have a total of 21 operating theatres at City Campus.
“There has been a significant deterioration in the overall condition of this theatre estate and this has manifested itself through an increased number of theatre failures, during planned ventilation testing and then more sporadic short-term failures.
“This has caused huge amounts of disruption to the operational running of theatres and at times resulted in significant activity loss.”
