Group approves case for new emergency care centre in Aberdeen

PLANS for a £110million emergency care centre in Aberdeen took a major step forward yesterday when the NHS Grampian board approved the business case for the project.

The scheme – the biggest led by the NHS in the north-east – will now be formally submitted to the Scottish Government for final approval.

Work could begin at the end of April, with the centre operational by December 2012.

The 10-storey building will be nearly twice the size of the Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital and house a wide range of NHS functions, including the G-Med out-of-hours service, accident and emergency, community and mental health services.

More than 300 hospital beds will be available, replacing 40% of the existing capacity at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, and three out of four patients will be treated in single rooms.

A high-dependency unit for medical specialities, such as coronary care, is also planned.

Patients in other parts of the north-east will benefit from telemedicine facilities, which will allow specialists in Aberdeen to oversee procedures in community hospitals and clinics. Project director Graeme Smith said the project would speed up diagnosis, treatment and the return home for 70,000 patients every year.

“It started as a replacement for the acute medical assessment unit, and has been transformed into a major project for Grampian and the NHS in Scotland,” he said.