Patient safety

Barts Health NHS Trust to regenerate New Whipps Cross Hospital

A new, modern hospital at Whipps Cross will have the same range of acute services as it does now but will provide them faster and in more convenient ways for patients.

Clinicians at Barts Health and its partners have made it clear that a new hospital on the existing Leytonstone site still will deliver the same core services currently available, including A&E and consultant-led maternity care.

Although it has been suggested many of these services should be carried out differently to advance care quality and patients experience.

Recommendations for the new models of care include:

• Faster access to appropriate and specialist treatment
• Rapid diagnostics and same-day results
• Better co-ordination with more care closer to home

This could mean 12% fewer hospital admissions, with admitted patients spending on average one day less in hospital than they do now. Furthermore, fewer patients would attend outpatients in person in favour of more virtual clinics.

Such efficiencies, co-inside with planned improvements in primary and community care, would allow the new hospital to manage rising demand, with the local catchment population for Whipps Cross projected to grow by 11% over the next decade, and the over-65 population increasing by a quarter.

The Whipps Cross Health and Care Services Strategy proposes that a new hospital to manage increasing demand, with the local catchment population for Whipps Cross projected to progress by 11% over the next decade, and the over 65 population growing by a quarter.

The plans suggested by almost 200 local clinicians are recommended by doctors across north east London as part of the region’s response to the NHS Long-Term Plan. They convey how modern advances in medicine, care and technology should mean fewer people need to visit hospital or spend so long there in future.

Medical director at Whipps Cross, Dr Heather Noble, said: “This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for us to redesign hospital services to put the patient at the centre and help people stay at home wherever possible.

“We are already adopting these principles, for example with our new Urgent Treatment Centre in A&E. This directs patients to the most appropriate treatment for their need, and ensures that those who require specialist care treated and discharged safely and promptly.”