As many as 1,000 jobs could be created as part of a £35 million revamp of Fazakerley Emergency Department after building plans were approved.
The building programme, scheduled to be completed by 2016, aims to transform the existing building into a new-look, two-storey Emergency Department that would be called the Urgent Care and Trauma Centre.
Builders BAM Construction have pledged to recruit local workers with hundreds of jobs on the cards for the area.
The centre will also house critical care, theatres and the fracture clinic, which means patients with multiple medical needs can be treated in the same location more quickly.
The hospital Emergency Department currently attends to over 85,000 patients every year and specialises in emergency trauma care.
Catherine Beardshaw, chief executive of Aintree Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, told Liverpool Vision: “We are about to embark on a very exciting project that will ensure we can provide the best quality care to patients in modern, fit-for-purpose facilities. The result will be a much more patient-friendly environment.”
Management believes the modernisation further cements the hospital’s role of being able to offer the best service in the best environment possible to the most seriously ill trauma patients.
The new centre, which is a mix of new build and redevelopment of the existing department, will have a fresh, spacious, modern design with more comfortable waiting areas.
Shirley Brady, Clinical Manager for the intensive care department, told Liverpool Vision: “We deal with the sickest patients in the hospital. To have additional beds in a better environment will help give patients the best chance of recovery both physically and psychologically.”
She added: “The quicker the patients’ recovery in critical care, the better their chances are of an overall recovery.”
Trust executives are also planning to put in more diagnostic equipment in the Emergency Department to help provide swifter treatment to the most seriously ill.
Video report by Nathan McCrae, JMU Journalism TV