Demolition works begin at the QEII

Work has begun this week to demolish three empty buildings at the QEII Hospital site to make way for a temporary car park for when the main construction work begins on the New QEII in the autumn.

The buildings being demolished previously housed Ascots day hospital, Stanborough ward (elderly care), Peartree (maternity outpatients) and some administration teams. These services have already been moved into levels 7 and 8 in the QEII’s tower block.

Jacqui Bunce, Programme Director for NHS Hertfordshire said: “Despite this building work taking place, it’s very much business as usual for staff and patients at the QEII. The demolition will be carried out with minimum disruption and patients will continue to receive the high quality services they’ve come to expect. We’ve been working very closely with East & North Herts Trust to make sure patients and visitors are aware of the changes and we are very pleased with how well the service changes have been gone. It is great to see the first steps in the building of the New QEII.”

The New QEII is being planned by NHS Hertfordshire – the primary care trust – and GPs from the East and North Herts Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG). The hospital, due to open in 2014, will be a brand new four-storey building providing a modern environment for the services that local people use most often. The new hospital will include:

• A Local A&E facility – available 24 hours a day, every day of the year – to look after the vast majority of people who currently use the A&E service at the QEII.
• General outpatients  
• GP services, including in the evenings and at weekends  Diagnostics – such as CT and MRI scans, x-rays and ultrasound 
• Rapid Assessment Unit – for patients who need urgent assessment and diagnostics but don’t need to be admitted into hospital 
• Endoscopy and day treatments  
• Ante and post natal services  A dedicated Children’s Centre  
• Therapy services – like physiotherapy and occupational therapy  
• The Vicki Adkins Breast Unit

ENDS

Notes to editors

Photo caption: Fencing goes up around outbuildings at the QEII as demolition work begins.

East and North Herts CCG is a group of local GPs who work together to commission (or purchase) health services for their patients. The CCG aims to become fully responsible for commissioning these services from April 2013. You can read more about CCGs in Hertfordshire at: www.hertfordshire.nhs.uk/what-we-do/hertfordshire-gp-commissioning-consortia