Hospital Refurbishment
The trust inherited two PFI construction projects from its predecessors, both planned in the 90s. The Blackburn Royal Infirmary (BRI), was decommissioned in the summer of 2006, after a new hospital building was built at the existing Queens Park Hospital (QPH) site in the town, so to merge the two sites into a single hospital for Blackburn. This meant the moving of many departments, and much publicity was made about the moving of the Accident and Emergency department, so to avoid public confusion of the exact time when the A&E at BRI shut, and the A&E at the newly merged Royal Blackburn Hospital site opened. Also at Burnley a smaller scheme known as Phase 5 was underway, intended to provide improved care of the elderly, and dermatology facilities.
Also, much consolidation has come into effect since the merging of the two original trusts. This has involved the closure of many wards and departments at the Burnley General Hospital, with much speculation of the site's belittlement. Despite this, a new building was completed at the Hospital in late 2007 (known as Phase 5). The Trust continues to make major investments on the Burnley site, with £32m development of the Lancashire Women and Newborn Centre and £0.3m fitting ventilation systems in two operating theatres, to undertake additional orthopaedic surgery.
Read more about this topic: East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust
Famous quotes containing the word hospital:
“The church is a sort of hospital for men’s souls, and as full of quackery as the hospital for their bodies. Those who are taken into it live like pensioners in their Retreat or Sailor’s Snug Harbor, where you may see a row of religious cripples sitting outside in sunny weather.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)