New £24.86 Acute Assessment Units (AAU) will be created at hospitals in Grimsby and Scunthorpe following final approval of ambitious plans to transform emergency care in our area.
The units – which will be housed in what are now our Emergency Departments – will also house provision for Same Day Emergency Care (SDEC) and are a key element of our ongoing investment in our sites.
And this next phase of central government funding is now being released following approval from the Department of Health.
Divisional Medical Director of Medicine, Dr Anwer Qureshi, has been instrumental in designing not only the new units and facilities themselves but, with his team, has also defined the clinical pathways which determined how the facilities are designed to provide you and your loved ones with best possible care.
He said: “We have already made significant progress on constructing the new Emergency Departments, which will be used to provide care to you if you are seriously injured or ill. These facilities will also be hosting our Urgent care services- where you will be managed by our skilled practitioners for an urgent but non-life threatening injury or illness”.
“Having this final phase of funding approved will allow us to complement these units with our Acute Assessment units and short stay wards, all on one floor”.
“These AAUs will be staffed by expert clinicians trained in a wide variety of skills. This will allow us to see and diagnose you more quickly and get you on the right course of treatment, without necessarily having to admit you to a ward in the first instance.
“As a result, it’s less likely that clinically stable patients will need to be admitted and, if you are, you will probably spend less time in hospital.”
“It is a joint effort for which I am grateful to the ED, Acute Medicine, Surgical specialties and Family Services teams at NLaG. Together, we have already updated and implemented processes and pathways based on best practice, which will swiftly move us into the use of the new facilities when available, setting an example in the region”.
