Oncology Services and the Fracture Clinic at the Royal Lancaster Infirmary (RLI) have been temporarily moved to facilitate the expansion of UHMBT’s Emergency Department (ED) in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Moving the Oncology Services and Fracture Clinic will enable the Trust to make best use of its estates and meet the requirements of national guidelines on COVID-19 as well as improving patient safety in the ED.
Oncology Services at the RLI have now been moved from Medical Unit 1 to the Grizedale Unit in Westmorland General Hospital in Kendal. The Grizedale Unit is a modern and established Oncology Unit, providing chemotherapy treatment and care. The unit has sufficient capacity to accommodate the additional patients. All of the patients affected by this change will receive support from the Trust’s teams to assist them with the change of treatment location.
The Fracture Clinic at the RLI, which was next to the ED, has been transferred to Medical Unit 1, into the accommodation space that is to be vacated by Oncology Services. The new location for the Fracture Clinic includes accommodation for a plaster room and is sufficiently close to the satellite Radiology Unit to ensure care can continue to be delivered safely and efficiently.
‘Foluke Ajayi, Chief Operating Officer, UHMBT, said: “The temporary relocation of these two facilities for the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic, will enable the expansion of our ED at the RLI into the space vacated by the Fracture Clinic.
“The reorganisation will facilitate the creation of additional capacity to support the partitioning of individuals who are identified as potential COVID-19 positive patients from other visitors to the emergency department. It will also increase the number of isolation rooms for people who require it when they are in the ED.
“This reorganisation is in line with the patient safety guidelines for EDs in response to the COVID-19 major incident.”