Milton Keynes Hospital building a new ward to offer more beds

Due to the building work the car park next to the treatment centre

The new ward, which will help the hospital deal with ever-increasing demand for its services throughout the year, will be built next to the treatment centre, which is currently also the hospital’s main entrance.

The works are part of a larger programme of improvements being made to the hospital, with a brand new main entrance and academic centre - which is being built in partnership with the University of Buckingham - planned for completion next year.

Construction of the new surgical ward is expected to be completed in January 2017.

Professor Joe Harrison, chief executive of Milton Keynes University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We have seen an unprecedented demand for hospital services in Milton Keynes in recent years and this continues to increase as the local population grows at one of the fastest rates in the country. This new ward will mean the hospital can continue to provide excellent care to a growing-number of patients.

“It is an exciting time for the hospital – we are making improvements across the whole of our site and as well as increasing capacity to care for local people, visitors will soon be able to enjoy the benefits of a modern, welcoming and easily accessible new main entrance while the Trust will be able to train and retain some of the brightest clinical staff in the country thanks to the new Academic Centre.”

As a result of the works, the hospital is closing the car park next to the treatment centre and has increased the number of disabled parking bays on the ground floor of the multi-storey car park.

The hospital will also be providing two extra wheelchair parks at both the multi-storey car park and the treatment centre, and increasing free parking in all car parks from 15 to 30 minutes to ensure cars dropping off patients have ample time to help them to their appointment.

John Blakesley, deputy chief executive, said: “We have put a tremendous amount of work into planning where the new surgical ward should be located to ensure it is close enough to the main hospital buildings to allow patients to be transferred safely, and rapidly in a clinical emergency.

“The best option in terms of clinical access and safety is the car park next to the Treatment Centre. Regrettably this car park is one of the Trust’s disabled access car parks, which has meant re-providing these designated spaces in the ground floor of the multi-story car park.”

Patients with appointments at the hospital have been sent letters with details of the new parking arrangements, and photographs and site maps of the area can be viewed on the hospital’s website: here.