Dedicated Ambulance Assessment Unit Officially Opens at York Hospital

In order to improve clinical services and patient experience a new dedicated ambulance assessment unit has opened at York Hospital.

The Trust has worked closely with Yorkshire Ambulance Service (YAS) to develop the new facility which will assist both hospital and ambulance staff in reducing handover and turnaround times whilst ensuring an improved patient experience.

Office space has been converted to create the unit which includes seven dedicated cubicles that can be used by both adults and children on arrival at hospital by ambulance.

The unit, which cost £800,000 to develop, is the first part of an extensive capital programme within the Emergency Department at York Hospital. The second phase of the programme will provide four additional observation beds for patients who need to stay in the Emergency Department for further observation or those who have been referred elsewhere for social support or admission to a hospital bed.

Wendy Quinn, Directorate Manager for the Emergency Department at York Hospital, explained: “We are delighted to officially open our dedicated ambulance assessment unit which will ensure that our patients can be seen quickly and in an appropriate clinical area when arriving by ambulance.

“The creation of the Unit will improve handover times, facilitating earlier assessment of often very ill patients and getting ambulance crews back on the road to help others.”

Vince Larvin, Locality Director at Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust added: “The creation of a dedicated unit at the Emergency Department at York Hospital is a very positive step as we continue to work together to improve patient experience and handover times.

“Patient safety is at the heart of everything we do and the new Unit will help us to ensure that patients get the best possible access to emergency care at the earliest opportunity whilst allowing us to get back our crews back on the road as quickly as possible.”

Notes to Editors

The £800,000 cost for developing the Ambulance Assessment Unit includes a phase of enabling works, which included building the temporary ambulance holding area - which will be used as a Seminar Room - creating a diverted ambulance route and undertaking the foundations and groundwork for the modular office building in the ED car park.  All of this work was required to make the creation of the Ambulance Assessment Unit possible and for the future phases of the project. 

20 June 2014