Health Your
Ambitious Caring Together
News from Rotherham’s hospital and community health services
August - October 2019 Isssue 2 December 2024
Investing £7 million into services for Rotherham patients The Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust has been successful in its bid to secure £7 million from the government’s Additional Capacity Targeted Investment Fund (ACTIF). ACTIF is ring-fenced funding specifically to be used to expand urgent and emergency care capacity. The money will be used to increase Rotherham’s Urgent and Emergency Care Centre (UECC) creating additional capacity for urgent primary care, minor injuries and the medical same day emergency care (SDEC) unit. This additional capacity will support the Trust’s improvement journey working towards achieving the national four-hour emergency care standard. In order to create the additional space required, the funding will also be used to develop a new purpose-built fracture clinic
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with its own x-ray facility, and relocate the sexual health service. This will provide each service with dedicated facilities that can be accessed more easily by patients. In addition, the pre-assessment centre will also be relocated to a self-contained and easy to access unit within close proximity to day surgery. Sally Kilgariff, Chief Operating Officer at the Trust, said: “Our success in securing this funding is great news for Rotherham and for the patients we care for. “The expansion and improvement of urgent primary care, minor injuries and medical same day emergency care will go a significant way to help reduce our UECC waiting times and overcoming capacity challenges that many Trusts face.
rooms where patients can be assessed and seen in a timely manner. This new area will support an excellent patient experience whilst also improving overall patient outcomes. “These improvements are not solely limited to UECC as we see similar works and improvements planned to take place in a number of other departments, including an improved co-located orthopaedic, fracture clinic and orthotic service, and new departments for sexual health and preoperative assessment.” Dr Eamon Staunton, Clinical Lead for the UECC, said: “This is a fantastic investment in emergency care for Rotherham. It will provide us with much-needed additional capacity as demand on the UECC increases.
“However, it remains important that people use the service appropriately, and should only attend the UECC in an emergency or when advised by a healthcare professional. This helps us to care for those in the most urgent need of medical attention. Pharmacies, GPs and NHS111 should be the first port of call for any common or minor illnesses and ailments.” Works on the project started recently with the existing fracture clinic temporarily relocating to B level, junction 2. Patients and visitors can expect disruption while works are ongoing and are advised to check the Trust’s website for the latest information and service locations. It is expected that all works will be completed in Summer 2025.
“The newly designed, purpose built area will provide additional consultation and clinic
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