Modernisation at Harrogate District Hospital

Since that time, major medical advances have been made, the population of Harrogate has expanded widely and the requirements of its acute hospital site have changed dramatically.

Over the last couple of years, Harrogate Integrated Facilities have worked closely with the Trust, together with architectural experts and various contractors, to begin the long process of updating and refurbishing various areas of the site and beyond.

If you have visited the site recently, you will be aware that an entire section, which previously contained RAAC (Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete), has been demolished and is currently being rebuilt to accommodate more theatre space, a new ward, plus other enhanced services.

In order to accommodate this project, the HIF Capital Planning Team had to work very closely with the Trust to relocate the services provided in that area. One of the major elements of this involved moving our Medical Records Department off site, to our facility at Hornbeam Park, and redesigning that area to accommodate cubicle spaces, treatment rooms, a new plaster room, together with a gym area for physiotherapy purposes.

We have also relocated our Podiatry and Speech & Language departments off site, to a facility at Grove Park Court, which has provided space for six consulting rooms together with a first floor, open plan, office space, which can now accommodate up to 45 colleagues from our Community Nursing Team.

One of our wards, Wensleydale Ward, has also recently been updated to become a Digital Exemplar Ward, with the footprint being completely changed to allow 28 bed spaces, together with all the necessary ancillary spaces, which has now provided a much nicer, more modern, environment for both patients and colleagues.

We have also spent the last two years refurbishing our entire Emergency Department, an area which sees one of the highest levels of footfall in the Hospital site. This project has been extremely challenging due to the need to keep this department live and functioning alongside the necessary refurbishment works.

We have now completed our ED2 area, which has an extra 8 modern cubicle spaces, its own waiting area and staff base plus all other necessary ancillary spaces.

We would like to thank all of our patients, visitors and colleagues for their cooperation and patience throughout all of our refurbishment works. We appreciate that the changing locations, loud noises from demolition and rebuilding and other distractions can make medical care more difficult and are hard to fully prevent.

Our current capital projects are running to timescale at the moment and we are confident that these upgrades will prove invaluable on completion.

If you would like more information about HIF or the work that we do, please feel free to contact me at [email protected].