Taylor Young’s £20m hospital expansion approved

Aintree University Hospital has received planning permission from Liverpool City Council for £20m of new facilities for patients requiring urgent hospital care.

Taylor Young carried out the architectural design work and will be working with main contractor BAM Construction to deliver the two-year project.

Catherine Beardshaw, chief executive of the hospital, said: "This decision is fantastic news and will enable us to ensure we can continue to provide the best quality care to patients in modern, fit-for-purpose facilities. The work will help us meet demands for some of our busiest areas."

The accident and emergency, critical care, cardiology and fracture clinic departments will all be redeveloped as part of the project.

A&E will be extended and new see-and-treat rooms built to help the flow of patients through the department. The critical care department will also be expanded to allow an additional 24 beds for the hospital's sickest patients.

The fracture clinic will move into a new purpose-built department to improve access for patients requiring treatment and cardiology will also be centralised to ensure greater access between the department and coronary care.

The project will be entirely self-funded by the trust and forms part of a long term hospital-wide development that has already seen a new elective care centre, physiotherapy department, diabetes centre, therapies centre and refurbished radiology department.

The building project will involve several months of disruption and access roads to the hospital may face diversions. Information about these will be posted around the hospital and will appear on the website for visitors and patients travelling to Aintree University Hospital for treatment.

Beardshaw added: "We will of course work to minimise disruption, but some degree will be inevitable. Our accident and emergency department and the other areas will remain open throughout this construction project and we are sure that people will realise that the improvements will be well worth it."

Aintree University Hospital is a large teaching hospital providing a wide range of acute and non-acute specialties. It provides general acute services to a population of around 330,000 residents in the North Liverpool, South Sefton and Kirkby areas and provides specialist services to a population of 1.5 million residents across the North West and North Wales.