Work to build new £58m A&E at Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth can go ahead

Outline plans to create a modernised emergency department at Queen Alexandra Hospital, in Cosham, have been approved by city councillors.

As part of the scheme the existing multi-storey staff car park at the hospital will be demolished and replaced by a three-level building with blue light vehicle access.

It will also include 216 parking spaces beneath the building and will link to the main hospital.

Penny Emerit, the chief executive of Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust, said: ‘Receiving outline planning permission from Portsmouth City Council is an exciting milestone in our plans to develop a brand new emergency department for our patients, colleagues and our local community.

‘As well as giving us the capacity we need to meet the needs of our local residents, the new department will enable us to work more efficiently to give all our patients the very best possible care.’

It is thought the new design will help to improve waiting times in the department by giving nursing teams ‘better visibility’ across the department, enable faster decision-making by clinicians, and will mean patients have faster access to our radiology team for scans and tests.

As part of the new build adults and children will be treated in single rooms, improving privacy and enabling any patient with symptoms of coronavirus or other potentially infectious conditions to be isolated quickly.

The trust also said it will double resuscitation capacity from four adult bays to eight to provide additional capacity for patients needing treatment for critical conditions, while two further paediatric resuscitation bays will be provided for children.

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And a new CT scanner, located within the A&E, will mean patients requiring a specialist scan will be able to have one without leaving the department.

It comes as part of a wider regeneration of the hospital that has seen work already start to build a new 72-bed ward on part of the site of the north car park.

While proposals to build a new four-storey car park next to the ward were approved in March this year.

Construction work on the emergency department is set to start in autumn 2022.

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