Plans have been submitted for a temporary building at a major Welsh hospital, aimed at freeing up beds. The Anuerin Bevan University Health Board has applied for planning permission for the temporary discharge unit, which will be constructed off-site in modules and then craned into position at the Grange Hospital’s car park to save on construction time.
The application indicates that the building is set to be completed “in early 2025”. Despite intentions for the unit to be in place by January when the health board agreed to allocate up to £848,000 for its construction back in September, the planning application was only submitted to Torfaen Borough Council on January 3.
The health board is seeking permission to keep the temporary building in place for three years. The proposed unit would accommodate 12 beds or trollies and 20 chairs, along with 20 chairs, a treatment room, utility rooms, toilets, and a kitchen and staff room.
The discharge lounge is intended to alleviate pressure on the busy critical care hospital, which also serves as Gwent’s emergency unit. Last week, the Welsh Ambulance Service declared a critical incident due to its limited capacity to respond to emergency calls, partly because of ambulance delays at hospitals caused by long patient handover times.
Reports indicated that up to 18 ambulances were waiting outside the Grange at one point. The hospital, located at Llanfrechfa, Cwmbran, opened in 2020 but has since undergone several adaptations. For the latest health and Covid news, sign up to our newsletter here
The hospital’s planning permission is set for a formal change, as it was initially only meant to treat emergency cases or those referred by other services. However, the facility has been overwhelmed due to its use as a “walk in” accident and emergency service.
The current patient discharge lounge, with just six beds and four chairs, cannot handle the patient flow, where approximately 50 patients are discharged daily, and 13 “stepped down” to other hospitals. Consequently, patients awaiting discharge remain on wards, occupying beds needed for incoming patients, including those delayed in ambulances outside the emergency department.
In September, the health board approved the recruitment of six new consultants for the Grange, aiming to have them in place by April. The new discharge lounge planning application submitted to the borough council proposes a temporary building in a car park behind the main hospital, previously home to another temporary structure.
Prepared by Leeds-based P+HS Architects, the application notes: “The proposed location is enclosed to the north and west by the existing hospital building, ensuring that any new building in this area will be screened from the nearby residential properties.”
It also mentions that the building will “temporarily reduce the amount of parking in this area, however a previous temporary building erected in this area demonstrated that this would have a negligible impact on the hospital use.”