Today, 6 December 2021, the Borough Council of King’s Lynn & West Norfolk Planning Committee granted planning permission for the development of a new £12.5m state-of-the-art Endoscopy Unit at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital King’s Lynn NHS Foundation Trust hospital site.
Dr Shailesh Karanth, Gastroenterologist Consultant at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital King’s Lynn NHS Foundation Trust said: “This is an exciting development for our team. The new unit will modernise our facilities for patients, their families and staff and will enable all endoscopies to take place in one unit.”
Caroline Shaw CBE, Chief Executive of The Queen Elizabeth Hospital King’s Lynn NHS Foundation Trust said: “This is good news for our patients and staff – and is one of a number of important projects underway to modernise our hospital. Alongside this, we’re continuing to progress our work to bring a new hospital for King’s Lynn and West Norfolk.”
Groundwork is already underway on this important development which will create the theatre-decant space needed to enable the Trust to progress the work that is needed at the hospital to start installing failsafe roof supports across the first floor of the hospital on a rolling basis. This will further improve and maximise safety and improve the delivery of some services.
The state-of-the-art Endoscopy Unit is one of a number of projects being undertaken as part of modernising the hospital and will help to deliver the Trust’s ambition of becoming the best rural District Hospital for patient and staff experience.
The Trust expects the Endoscopy Unit to open next spring time 2022.
ENDS
Notes to editor:
Modernising the Queen Elizabeth Hospital
The Endoscopy Unit is part of a £20.6m programme of emergency national investment to modernise the Trust’s ageing estate. This also includes:
- a newly-converted outpatient facility
- refurbishing a series of wards by April 2022 including creating a dementia-friendly ward for the elderly.
In addition to modernising our facilities, this funding is allowing the installation of failsafes in some parts of the hospital (to reduce the risk of Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (RAAC) plank failures) which will improve the safety and delivery of some services.
While installing failsafes minimises the risk of plank failures, it does not extend the life of the hospital. The Government is committed to eradicating RAAC in hospitals by 2035. The deadline at QEH, based on expert structural review is 2030. The Trust strongly believes the only sustainable long-term solution is a new hospital.
Planning permission – permission was granted at the Borough Council of King’s Lynn and West Norfolk Planning Committee on 6 December 2021.
Endoscopy Unit – an endoscopy unit refers to a dedicated area where medical procedures are performed with endoscopes, which are cameras used to visualize structures within the body, such as the digestive tract (mouth, throat, stomach, intestines, rectum and anus) and reproductive and urinary system.
For further information please contact:
QEH Communications Team on 01553 613216 or email communicationsqeh@qehkl.nhs.uk
QEH Media Hub 