Rider Levett Bucknall (RLB UK) has been given the Royal Seal of Approval by HRH Princess Anne at the opening of the Leicester Royal Infirmary’s new Emergency Department.
Providing cost management and project management services, RLB joined the team at the University of Leicester on this £48m redevelopment. Meeting an increase in demand and need, the Emergency Department (ED) provides a state-of-the-art facility with a “single front door” entrance for effective patient streaming of the 240,000 annual users.
The new 9,000m2 ED has been designed to reduce stress for its patients and includes both Adult and Children’s EDs, Acute Care, Paediatric Assessment, Clinical Support including X-ray & CT, GP initial assessment, rapid assessment & support space. RLB is now working on the 3,750m² second phase, a refurbishment of existing facilities to support the patient flow to the ED, providing a new GP Assessment Unit (GPAU), Acute Medical unit, Emergency Decisions unit and facilities for the Elderly Frail.
Chairman Karamjit Singh CBE said: “We were delighted to welcome Her Royal Highness to the Leicester Royal Infirmary to officially open our Emergency Department. Staff gave Her Royal Highness a tour around our purpose-built department so she could see first-hand what we have done to create a better environment in which to care for our patients. As Patron of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine The Princess Royal has an understanding of the challenges faced in delivering emergency care and we were pleased to show her how we have designed a building to help us tackle those challenges.”
The development reflects the changing need and nature of the end user – in this case the patient and staff. The brief from the client was to reflect the end users’ needs and to ensure that the design worked as effectively and efficiently as possible while ensuring the hospital continued to be able to function during the building work. All involved have played an important part in achieving this.
The RLB Healthcare team has worked on projects including the Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust and the Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust.
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