Work on Dudley’s £2.6 million Emergency Treatment Centre has started at Russells Hall Hospital, ready for its opening in November this year.

The brand new purpose built centre, developed in partnership with Dudley CCG, will house urgent care services at the borough's main hospital. It will be situated next to the existing Emergency Department and will give patients an improved single point of access and one stop shop for urgent and emergency treatment.

Having the two services side-by-side means patients won’t have as far to go for non-emergency care and staff will be able to work even more closely together to provide a seamless service.

The new building will house a new urgent care waiting area, eight urgent treatment rooms, as well as a new Emergency Department waiting area. Paul Bytheway, Chief Operating Officer at The Dudley Group, said:

“This new facility is fantastic news for Dudley, as better assessment by appropriate clinicians and less pressure on A&E supports reduced waiting times and a better experience for patients.”

While the building work is underway, there will be some temporary changes to the way patients access the Emergency Department, entering via a temporary waiting area to the right hand side of the existing emergency entrance.

A new drop off zone will be created outside the temporary building and visitors will then park in the main visitor car park which has been adapted with a new pedestrian walkway to allow better access. Diane Wake, Chief Executive, added:

“This £2.6m investment really is money well spent to improve urgent and emergency care for Dudley patients ahead of winter and is just one of a number of major projects to improve healthcare for our patients.

“We’re also investing £3.5m in our state-of-the-art Imaging Suite at Guest Outpatient Centre and our electronic patient record Digital Trust project will see £32m invested over the next 10 years.”

Artist’s impression of the new Emergency Treatment Centre.