As we look to move past Covid-19 and the NHS works to recover the backlogs that see millions waiting for treatment, hospital trusts in the North East are working hard to build and revamp facilities to help.
From a new children's heart unit building at the RVI, to plans for a £36m eye hospital in Sunderland, it's not hard to find exciting plans which will transform the NHS across the North East. Even as the pandemic has continued, the powers-that-be within the health service have been working hard to expand capacity and make things easier for patients and staff.
For example, the Newcastle Westgate Cataract Centre opened on the site of the old general hospital, while in Gateshead new older people's mental health wards opened to revolutionise how vulnerable people are looked after. Hopefully, if Covid-19 cases fall and - in some cases - the right funding is secured, this will be a sign of things to come.
Read more: Newcastle hospitals face 'real challenges' to tackle two-year waiting list ahead of deadline
Below is a round-up of some of the innovative developments at the region's acute NHS hospitals:
Newcastle Hospitals NHS Trust
At the Newcastle Hospitals NHS Trust, plans are well underway to transform land at the Freeman Hospital into new centre for day-case surgery and similar procedures. Work is underway and the Trust is hoping its Elective Treatment Centre - worth £20m - will be open for business by the end of the summer.
The building will include four surgical theatres and allow medics to carry out an extra 3,000 "low complexity procedures" - these will include cardiothoracic and urology procedures. The plans were first unveiled in October 2021 - showing how the trust is working at speed to get this in place as it races to help the more than 90,000 people currently waiting for treatment.
Further down the road, the trust is hoping to receive funding from the Government's New Hospitals Programme to build its planned Richardson Wing - which in the years to come will transform the RVI. The £190m building would - if funding is approved - house many of the hospital’s specialist services, including critical care, a burns ward, and maternity.
The trust has also recently begun a consultation on plans for a new Children's Heart Unit. The service will be relocated from the Freeman to the RVI site - as this will mean it is located next to the rest of the trust's children's services.
Gateshead Health NHS Trust
In Gateshead at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, after opening new wards for older people's mental health, next on the agenda is the trust's hope to rebuild its maternity unit on the hospital site. At the moment, a "strategic outline case" is being prepared for the project, which would see a state-of-the-art multimillion pound facility created.
Beyond that, the trust has been working on a scheme to refurbish and revamp existing wards - and there's is also work underway on a new 14-bed orthopaedic ward on the top floor of the hospital's surgery centre. Additionally, hospital bosses are spending £1.8m on a decarbonisation plan which involves installing solar panels and air source heat pumps onsite - this will radically reduce the trust's carbon footprint.
Further ahead, a bid has been put together to access £90m of the Government funding for new wards and a new critical care and diagnostic centre at the hospital in Sheriff Hill.
Northumbria Healthcare NHS Trust
Across Northumbria and North Tyneside, a range of plans are underway as part of huge strategic investment in facilities. Late last year, the trust revealed a £326m masterplan which will see modernisation work across sites from Berwick to Rake Lane.
There will be new maternity and endoscopy units in Hexham, along with revamps at Wansbeck Hospital in Ashington and North Tyneside General. These will see the hospitals remain as "centres of surgical excellence" and the aim is to ensure patient care is still top-of-the-class.
So far work has begun in Ashington and North Shields - this will see wards refurbished and the creation of extra single rooms for patients. The £30m rebuild of Berwick Infirmary is also continuing apace as the trust continues to provide facilities to better serve its vast - and incredibly rural - patch.
At the Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital in Cramlington, the trust is developing plans on a £25m health and education hub along with a £8m centralised facility which will sterilise medical equipment.
South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Trust
In South Tyneside and Sunderland there are - like across the North East - big plans afoot. Planning permission for the new Sunderland Eye Hospital was granted last autumn. This £36m building will be "world-leading", say hospital bosses, and it is set to open in 2024 on the site of the city's old Vaux plant.
Trust chief exec Ken Bremner also revealed at a recent board meeting that these plans could be scaled up in light of the lengthy waiting lists facing ophthalmology patients in the region.
Work is also underway on a new diagnostic centre at South Tyneside District Hospital. This will see a £10m building house "world-class MRI and CT scanning equipment along with a PET-CT scanner" - and the aim is to help patients get diagnoses for illness like cancer more quickly and closer to home. It's hoped the facility will be up and running by the end of 2022, but in the meantime mobile scanners are now available at the hospital.
Beyond this, there are plans to relocate the intensive care unit at South Tyneside District - this will see £3m invested amid plans to modernise the service. This adds to previously completed work at the seaside hospital including a new endoscopy unit and a new pharmacy - complete with a robot. Both of these projects were completed in late 2021.
County Durham and Darlington NHS Trust
Like others in the region, the County Durham and Darlington NHS Trust is hoping to access the Government's New Specialist Hospital funding - the hope here is to transform A&E care at the University Hospital of North Durham. This follows on from the "enhanced" children's A&E unit which opened at Darlington Memorial in autumn 2021.
That unit includes "a triage room, treatment rooms which have been decorated with colourful murals, a paediatric resuscitation room and a sensory room as well as a waiting area".
Like the other hospital trusts, County Durham and Darlington are also investing in transforming their estates to reduce carbon footprints. Critical care consultant Dr Richard Hixson explained: "We've already installed a combined heat and power system at Darlington Memorial Hospital and upgraded our energy centre by replacing inefficient boilers with modern, much more efficient ones that use low sulphur light fuel oil. Our lighting is provided by high efficiency LED bulbs which, where practical, are movement activated - reducing wastage."
What do you think about how hospitals in the North East are changing? Let us know in the comments below
