Healthcare

Construction work has recently started on a new £300 million acute hospital,  mental health unit and integrated care centre. The new hospital will be built alongside the existing Edith Cavell Hospital in Bretton and is scheduled for completion in 2010. The new mental health centre, also being built at Edith Cavell, is due for completion in 2009.

The integrated care centre, to be built on the Peterborough District Hospital site in the city centre, should also be open in 2009. It will provide a range of services including in-patient rehabilitation, X-ray and diagnostics, minor treatments, community services and outpatient clinics.

The new centre will offer a ‘one-stop’ diagnostic and treatment capability where all the tests and investigations which you need can take place during a single visit. This may include treatment or surgery where this can be completed in less than a day.

A new emergency care unit will permit all patients to be assessed on arrival and immediately be referred to an appropriate specialist working within the centre.

There will also be dedicated areas for children and adolescents. A woman and child unit will bring together all maternity, gynaecology and children's services.

Following reorganisation in 2006, Peterborough now has a single primary care trust covering the whole of the city and surrounding villages. The trust funds and commissions local services such as GPs, dentists, opticians and pharmacists, as well as social care services.

It will continue to develop innovative services such as ‘community matrons’ who are working with residents who need a high level of care. The matrons co-ordinate all the different services patients require and fill any gaps in the care they receive, allowing them to remain part of the community rather than having to go into hospital.

Planned investment in new primary care facilities includes a £2.5 million extension to the Thomas Walker Medical Centre in Millfield and a new centre at Hampton.

Another of our local health trusts is also leading the way. Back in April 2004 Peterborough and Stamford Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust became one of the first ten NHS Foundation Trusts in England.

This means that our hospital services are being developed with the increased involvement of local communities in Peterborough and Stamford, rather than operating under the direct management control of the Department of Health. The trust, however, remains a central part of the NHS, committed to delivering NHS services to NHS patients.

Peterborough and Stamford Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust manages a number of facilities including:

• Peterborough District Hospital in the city centre, with 420 beds, which accommodates Homerton College of Health Studies, outpatient, radiology and pathology departments and is designated as a Postgraduate Medical Education Centre.  Its facilities include five main operating theatres, a six-bed intensive care unit, a day surgery unit, an endoscopy unit, a dental and ophthalmology wing with its own operating theatre, an ultrasound department, a 30-bed stroke unit, an emergency medical admissions ward and an accident and emergency department.
• Edith Cavell Hospital, opened in 1988, which has 253 beds. Facilities include five operating theatres, a high dependency unit, isolation unit, general surgical, urological, adult and paediatric ear nose and throat and orthopaedic services, a 29-bed nurse led rehabilitation unit and a hyperbaric oxygen unit. In addition there are four in-patient beds for the management of chronic intractable pain.

The site also includes the Robert Horrell Macmillan Day Centre, which offers services to patients living with a diagnosis of cancer.

Peterborough and Stamford Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is one of five trusts selected to host a Ministry of Defence Hospital Unit (MDHU). The unit comprises 150 military uniformed consultants, junior doctors, nurses and professionals, who are integrated within the trust.

Accident and emergency care is provided at Peterborough District Hospital and there is a ‘walk in centre’ open seven days per week from 07:00 to 22:00 in the city centre for less serious medical problems.

The private Fitzwilliam Hospital at Bretton has 55 rooms and high dependency facilities. It offers a wide range of surgical procedures, together with extensive diagnostic and treatment facilities, including X-ray, physiotherapy, ultrasound, MRI, sports injury clinic, IVF, health screening, complementary therapies and cosmetic surgery.

A state-of-the-art £6.5 million, 24-bed private orthopaedic hospital opened in Bretton in December 2004. It has the largest operating equipment in the area and is equipped with the latest X-ray and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) equipment and a walk-in minor injuries clinic.