£800,000 project for Bognor hospital

Work is set to start soon to transform the busy minor injuries unit and the x-ray department at the war memorial hospital.

The scheme will see the unit moved down the corridor into the former dialysis unit. The x-ray department will expand into the current minor injuries rooms.

It will be next August when the facilities are likely to be finished. Both departments will stay open while the work takes place.

Brian Knight, of the hospital's Friends, has welcomed the changes.

He said: "We are absolutely delighted the hospital's minor injuries unit is going to be extended.

"The work is well overdue. The existing unit was not designed for the amount of work which its staff now do.

"It has just grown and grown and it is good the unit is now going to be that much bigger."

Part of the refurbishment will see the Friends gain a bigger tea bar to replace their existing refreshment point in the unit.

This enables regular cheques of 500 to be handed over to the charity's funds to be spent for the benefit of the hospital's patients and staff.

Even more money is likely to be raised with a bigger tea bar and more patients to serve.

"We look forward to the day when the refurbishment is finished and we have a nice new tea bar in a better minor injuries unit," said Mr Knight.

About 13,500 patients were seen in the x-ray department in the year to last March and some 8,000 were treated for minor injuries. More than 20 staff work in the sections.

Just over half the cost of the improvements is being met by the generosity of Ben and Barbara Benjamin.

The couple, formerly of Barrack Lane, in Aldwick, left 1.2m to be equally shared among three organisations.

One of those was the hospital.

Their legacy will enable individual treatment rooms

to be provided in the minor injuries unit instead of the current mix of individual rooms and curtained-off bedded areas.

A dedicated resuscitation area will be provided as well.

There will also be a central nurses' base rather than the current tiny room where nurses view x-rays and enter details on a computer.

A second x-ray machine will be provided along with a bigger

x-ray reception area instead of the present shared seating with the minor injuries unit.

A spokesman for the hospital's operator, West Sussex Primary Care Trust, said: "This scheme will provide space for more equipment and to improve facilities in the minor injuries unit.

"There will be better consulting rooms and a better patient experience.

"There will also be a bigger diagnostic imaging department and a new digital X-Ray room."

But the opening hours of the minor injuries unit will stay the same '“ 9am-5pm Monday to Friday '“ regardless of the extra facilities.

Boring flooring in the hospital is also to be replaced.

Colour-coded flooring to help visitors around is being laid to replace the current floor covering, which is at least 18 years old.

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