Emergency medicine consultant, Dr Kate Coates; and A&E practice educator, Ellie Nicholson, put the first spade in the ground alongside Worthing West MP, Dr Beccy Cooper

A multi-million-pound improvement programme to expand the emergency department at Worthing Hospital began this week with a special ground-breaking event.

Urgent and emergency care and capital development staff were joined by invited guests and contractor, Morgan Sindall Construction, to celebrate building works getting underway for a new Urgent Treatment Centre (UTC) in West Sussex.

Morgan Sindall Construction and Crowther Architects were appointed to the project by the University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust and the UTC was procured via SCAPE, one of the UK’s leading public sector procurement authorities.

UTCs provide urgent medical help for people when their condition is not life-threatening.

They offer appointments via the NHS 111 service and are equipped to investigate, diagnose, and treat the most-common illnesses people come to A&E for.

Worthing Hospital’s new single-storey, steel-framed facility will include a large waiting room plus 12 consultation rooms and clinical support areas.

The development will also see the existing A&E entrance relocated to facilitate the new building.

Extensive collaboration and co-ordination will be required throughout the project to ensure minimal disruption to the busy hospital’s operations.

This will include during the infilling of the existing courtyard, which is surrounded on three sides by existing buildings, as well as when breaking through existing perimeter walls.

The new facility is due to complete in the Autumn

The project will also involve extensive works within existing areas to provide electricity, water, and heating services.

Elements of the construction process that will require careful attention will include reducing noise and vibration to the nearby A&E, maternity, and X-ray areas, as well as when materials and equipment will need to be moved across the hospital’s ‘blue light’ route.

Worthing Hospital emergency department is the busiest in West Sussex, seeing around 100,000 people a year.

Demand is growing, too, by around 5% a year, mostly driven by a rise in the number of people coming to the department by themselves for urgent care.

The new UTC will treat at least 40,000 patients a year, who will all use the emergency department’s new main entrance, reception, and waiting areas.

Following a 10-month construction programme and clinical commissioning period, patients can expect to be using the new facility from Autumn 2025.

And, once open, work will begin on the same-day emergency care unit in the space vacated in the hospital’s East Wing by the current UTC.

Hospital director, Stephen Mardlin, said: “We’re delighted to see the construction begin on this £7m expansion of our emergency department because it will have such a transformative effect for our patients, A&E colleagues, and the rest of the hospital.

“Located right at the front of the hospital, this development will create a new entrance for all urgent walk-in attendances, a larger waiting room, and 12 new consultation rooms and clinical support areas.

“It also clears the way for us to develop a same-day emergency care (SDEC) unit for the first time in the hospital, to be situated where the current UTC is.”

Guy Hannell, area director for Morgan Sindall Construction in the Southern Home Counties, added: “We’re excited to be celebrating the start of work onsite for Worthing Hospital’s new urgent treatment centre, as we know that, once complete, the centre is going to deliver a wide range of valuable benefits for the hospital’s staff and local community.

“We’ve worked closely with Worthing Hospital to develop a design for the new facility that is tailored to the site’s needs and to ensure that the construction process is carefully co-ordinated to minimise disruption to the hospital’s vital daily operations.”

The investment in urgent and emergency care at Worthing Hospital is part of a widespread commitment by University Hospitals Sussex to expand and modernise the trust’s emergency departments.