Comment: Hospital design reflects changes

Jul 14 2008 Liverpool Daily Post

CONDITIONS in our hospitals have long been a cause for concern and a huge political embarrassment for the Government, with alarming stories of trolleys in corridors and the spread of superbugs.

That is why the plans now emerging for the new Royal Liverpool Hospital are particularly welcome.

Under the proposed £477m project to rebuild the hospital, every bed will be in a private room, which health chiefs say will shorten recovery times and reduce hospital-acquired superbugs such as MRSA.

A detailed consultation begins today on the new hospital project, planning for which started back in 2001, and has been led by a design group of 40 senior clinicians.

Over the next 14 weeks, members of the public have a chance to express their views during a series of public meetings around the Liverpool, Sefton and Knowsley areas.

The new hospital will also reflect a major cultural shift in the way patients are treated, with greater emphasis placed on recovery at home.

For this reason, fewer beds will be housed in the new design, a prospect which has alarmed some health experts, along with the fact that the project will be funded by money from the Private Finance Initiative (PFI).

This last point can be easily dismissed. All patients are concerned about is receiving the very best treatment in state-of-the-art facilities – narrow ideological concerns about how the money was provided will come very far down the list of priorities, if it features at all.

More healthcare is also being provided with the community, and this will continue to rise, with long and costly stays in hospital increasingly a thing of the past.

A new hospital needs to reflect these changes, and take account of the fact that PFI is often the only funding available for a project of this size.