The hospital has received funding from NHS England to create a boosted Same Day Emergency Care Service. The expanded service will increase the number of spaces for patients receiving Same Day Emergency Care to 20, in comparison to the nine spaces available currently, and will be located on the ground floor, in the treatment rooms currently used for Orthopaedic Outpatient services. This location is next to the hospital’s current Emergency Department and Emergency Assessment Discharge Unit, and the capital funding received by the hospital will be used to convert and update the internal environment, equipment, and facilities, for staff and patients.
To accommodate this, Orthopaedic Outpatient services – also known as the Fracture Clinic – will move into a new temporary building situated next to the recently opened James Paget Orthopaedic Centre. The hospital has received planning permission for the development of this building (see artist’s impression) , which will be constructed off site using Modern Methods of Construction, and delivered and installed in units.
Delivered by Darwin Group, the new Orthopaedic Outpatient Centre will feature nine consultation and examination room and a modernised plaster bay, plus improved staff office and rest areas. The new unit will arrive at the hospital and be installed in March, with opening scheduled for May.
Charlotte Dillaway, Chief Operating Officer at James Paget University Hospital, said: “We’re delighted to proceed with our plans to move our Orthopaedic Outpatient services into a new, modern environment, which will improve the quality of service we provide to people recovering from fractures. This also allows the James Paget to rapidly expand and improve the same day emergency care we provide, and increase the number of patients receiving assessment, diagnosis, treatment, and discharge, on the day they arrive, without the need to be admitted.”
The new Orthopaedic Outpatient Centre is designed as a temporary building that will support the hospital and local patients while the planning and construction of the full new James Paget hospital takes places over the coming years. The Department of Health and Social Care recently confirmed the James Paget’s rebuild will begin in 2027-28, with an indicative budget of £1-1.5 billion.
The James Paget has received £4.2 m of capital funding from NHS England to develop and create the new Orthopaedic Outpatient Centre building, and refurbish the new Same Day Emergency Care service area in the space vacated by the Fracture Clinic.