‘Transformational’: A look inside Scarborough’s new £47m urgent and emergency care centre

The £47m state-of-the-art urgent and emergency care centre (UECC) will almost double the existing space at Scarborough Hospital on Woodlands Drive once it is completed this autumn.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) visited the large yet very well-organised and modern building which represents the largest capital investment ever made by the York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Across multiple floors, departments and wards, everything from the colours to the architecture has been designed with a purpose.

“Nothing is accidentally where it is,” said Jo Southwell, the project lead for the UECC.

“We’re just about to hand over the building to our clinical and operational staff to go live in September,” she added.

While it is still classed as an active construction site, inside and outside, the building does not look far from completion and staff recently tested 57 “pathways” or simulations of patients coming in with different health issues.

Described as a “game-changer” for healthcare on the coast, the promise of brand new facilities has already helped to attract new medical staff as well as creating jobs in other roles including catering and cleaning.

In addition to a new CT scanner and two new X-ray machines, the site comes with a secure room for highly infectious diseases and the whole building could be securely divided into two sections in the case of a wider outbreak, such as Covid-19.

However, services that previously moved to York, such as stroke services, will not come back as part of the new UECC.

There has also been a “huge focus” on environmental awareness and ensuring natural light, good energy efficiency in the building, and covering the roof with solar panels.

Ed Smith, deputy medical director at the NHS Trust, said: “Quite a lot of patients now don’t need to be in hospital, they need investigation or treatment and that can be provided here.”

He added: “We’re incredibly excited about opening this new building which demonstrates a commitment to the sustainability of healthcare services on the Scarborough Hospital site, providing care for patients up and down the coast.

“It’s difficult to overstate how important this is for our services.”

More than £800,000 has been raised by the York and Scarborough Hospitals Charity to fund projects which will enhance the patient experience including creating four outdoor terraces and providing accommodation suites for relatives.

The project lead, Ms Southwell, said: We don’t say it lightly, but it is transformational for the way we work, not just at the new UECC but how it works in terms of our current services in the rest of the building.”

She added that despite challenges along the way “positivity has been sky high and the staff really can’t wait to start utilising the facilities”.

Ms Southwell also thanked everyone who had worked on the project and said that her “personal pride in the team that we’ve worked with can’t be understated” and that the building was evidence of how people had “worked over and above to achieve excellence”.