St Thomas’ Hospital Emergency Care Pathways

St Thomas’ Hospital’s Accident and Emergency Department is undergoing a phased rebuild to create a new Emergency Floor.

The A&E department at St Thomas’s hospital, built for 80,000 patients a year, will be transformed to improve emergency services and the care environment for the 140,000 patients who now visit the department each year.

The changes will be carried out over two years while the A&E department and all emergency services remain open as usual.  Emergency medicine consultant Dr Simon Eccles said: “It will be a bit like changing the wheels on a car without stopping.”

Improvements include a six-bed unit for children admitted for up to 24 hours, and an expanded adult “majors” area, with more patients able to receive treatment in private rooms.  The Urgent Care Centre, which handles about a third of A&E patients, will also be expanded and new modular offices will be relocated to the first floor, above A&E, to maximise available patient treatment space.