Talk of Leicester’s Royal Infirmary updating their A&E floor has taken over the Midlands, and we have asked the experts at Geobond for their take on the progress.

The hospital’s five year plan is costing £300 million, and as part of this strategy, the A&E department is being demolished in order to build a new floor that will cater for over 180,000 patients a year. The A&E department was built 10 years ago and was designed to care for 100,000 patients – but this number is growing rapidly each year.

“We’re really pleased with progress to date and the arrival of the piling rigs marks completion of another milestone on our journey to the new emergency floor.”

• Richard Kinnersley, Major Projects Technical Director at Leicester’s Hospitals

The Major Projects Technical Director has stated that the plans for Leicester Royal Infirmary include bigger cubicles for patients, more room for ambulances, an integrated mental health department and a brand new children’s emergency department. The extra room and additional services will improve the environment of the emergency floor as well as allowing for a faster and more efficient service. The aim of this development is to prepare for the growing amount of patients the department receives each year as well as increasing patient experience and decreasing waiting times.

The floor itself will cost an estimated £43.3 million and has been called ‘frailty friendly’ as its specific design caters for the rising amount of elderly visitors that the floor receives. The department will also turn paper-free and will rely fully on an electronic system to further decrease patient waiting time. The large concrete structures forming the stair towers to the new 438-spaced multi storey car park can now be seen from Aylestone Road in Leicester.

The plans haven’t run as smoothly as first anticipated though, as hundreds of people wrote to Leicester City Council to sign a petition objecting to demolishing St Luke’s Chapel – a Victorian Chapel including prayer rooms located in the vicinity of the building plans. A temporary chapel has been opened including three prayer rooms until a more permanent structure can be built.

The Leicester’s Hospitals website includes further information on the progress of both the emergency floor and the car park and even includes a virtual tour of the new A&E department.