A MAJOR investment project is to begin at Macclesfield Hospital in the spring and will help reduce waiting times for operations by the end of this year.
The £2.18m day case unit will be built as a wing on the main hospital building. Eventually, more than 3,000 operations will be performed at the unit, with many patients returning home the same evening. The 'fast track' surgery will have a major impact on the availability of theatres which will be dedicated to more complicated operations, in turn reducing overall waiting times.
John Wilbraham, acting chief executive of East Cheshire NHS Trust, said: "We are delighted to have the go ahead for such a key new project. This expansion in capacity will allow the Trust to treat more patients, more quickly and is a major asset in achieving the waiting times set in the NHS plan. The staff at the hospital are very pleased and we believe the public of East Cheshire will reap benefit."
The two-storey unit will be built on land between the children's ward and the Millbrook unit on the Fieldbank Road side of the main hospital building. Access will be from inside the main hospital corridor. There will be one theatre in the unit and an area with eight day case trolleys for patients having operations. Once fully open, approximately 3,200 procedures a year will be carried out in the unit.
The project will require the removal of an existing earth bank and the building of a retaining wall. Work will start this month on the 18 new car park spaces which will be introduced near the Alderley Building on West Park.
In a business plan to the Strategic Health Authority, the Trust says that the unit will fit in with plans to increase the proportion of operations that are carried out as day cases and will "further improve the patient experience and choice", both as part of the modernisation agenda.
For more details please visit the Trust web site at: www.echeshire-tr.nwest.nhs.uk .
