NHS Ayrshire & Arran's Chief Executive John Burns and Doug Keillor, Regional Director of contractors BAM Construction, have met to sign the construction contract for the pioneering Building for Better Care programme. The formal signing session was a major milestone in the programme, which will see a new Emergency Department at University Hospital Ayr and two new Combined Assessment Units at Ayr and University Hospital Crosshouse.

Phases 1 and 2 of Building for Better Care (BfBC) will provide new, modern, fit-for-purpose facilities at the 'front doors' of University Hospital Ayr and University Hospital Crosshouse. The 'front door' is the term used to describe the point of entry for patients coming to hospital for anything other than a scheduled appointment. The new facilities will make it possible to patients to get rapid assessment by senior clinical staff at the earliest point of their arrival in hospital.


Phases one and two of the Building for Better Care Programme include the following new facilities:

• Development of Combined (Medical and Surgical) Assessment Units (CAUs) at University Hospitals Ayr and Crosshouse, in line with the requirement of the Royal College of Physicians that all hospitals should have an acute medical unit to deliver safe and effective emergency medical care.

• A new Emergency department (A&E) at University Hospital Ayr, with resuscitation bays, high care areas and cubicles, fully integrated with the minor injury unit and NHS Ayrshire Doctors on Call (ADOC).

Work will start at University Hospital Crosshouse in mid-June.

Chief Executive John Burns said: "Signing the contract was a major landmark and the culmination of several years of work to improve the quality of our services. Building for Better Care will give us the fit-for-purpose physical environment to support the improvements we are already making in the ways patients are assessed, treated, admitted or safely discharged when they come to hospital in an emergency. Of course there will be short-term disruption while construction gets under way, and I would be very grateful for everyone’s patience during this phase."

(CD/IT)