Cossham Memorial Hospital in Kingswood has re-opened its doors to patients after an extensive £19m refurbishment by NHS South Gloucestershire.
The building has new, modern and fully-accessible facilities from which the NHS will deliver double the amount of outpatient appointments. This means that many local people will no longer have travel to an acute hospital to see their consultant.
Capita Symonds provided project management and design team services on the hospital refurbishment, which has kept many original features from the building which first opened in 1907. Key new departments include the area’s first stand-alone, midwife-led birth centre and a new renal dialysis unit, which opened to patients in October.
The hospital will also have enhanced X-ray, ultrasound, MRI and CT scanning facilities and will be able to offer twice as many physiotherapy appointments than before. The Cossham Dialysis Unit has the capacity to provide care for 96 patients, with 24 dialysis stations.
The facilities also include a dedicated area for supporting patients who wish to perform their own dialysis within the unit and a training area for patients who plan to dialyse in their own homes. The location of the unit also means that the amount of travelling time for patients presently attending for treatment at dialysis units and renal outpatients on the Southmead Hospital site and Knowle West Health Park will be significantly reduced.
Cossham Birth Centre will be the first free-standing birth centre in the area, offering an alternative to home or the traditional hospital based birth setting.
Commenting on the improvements, Dr Stephen Illingworth, interim chairman of the South Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group, which takes over the role of NHS South Gloucestershire in April, said: “The re-opening of Cossham Hosptial will be a fantastic boost for local people who can now access a wide range of outpatient and diagnostic services on their doorstep.
“Cossham will now deliver twice as many outpatient appointments, diagnostic and therapy services as before, in a facility that has preserved the best of the old beautiful building while creating modern facilities inside. We would like to thank everyone who has worked so hard to create this wonderful facility, especially the members of the public who have given their energy, time and enthusiasm.”
Services will be run by North Bristol NHS Trust. Its chief operating officer, Sasha Karakusevic, said: “One of the main aims of refurbishing Cossham Hospital was to provide healthcare closer to people’s homes.
“The new facilities are fresh, modern and welcoming and feedback from patients who have already been using the dialysis unit has been fantastic and we’re confident that local people, who hold the hospital very close to their hearts, will be equally appreciative.”
The refurbishment of Cossham Hospital followed detailed consultation with local people and the NHS to look at the healthcare needs of the population in Kingswood and East Bristol. Half of the members of the original project board came from outside the NHS, ensuring that it reflected a wide range of views.
