NEW proposals for creating the area’s major emergency hospital at the Royal Bournemouth will go before planners on Thursday.

It’s one outcome of the clinical services review which will also see the creation of the major planned hospital at Poole.

The centrepiece of the plans at Bournemouth is the Women’s, Children’s Emergency and Critical Care Centre (WCEC).

It will include one of the largest emergency departments on the south coast, a purpose built maternity unit with two obstetric theatres, special care baby unit, neonatal, antenatal and postnatal care units, a new paediatric unit and 30-bed critical care unit.

The 20,000 square feet of clinical space represents the largest ever investment in the NHS in Dorset and includes more car parking and an comprehensive public transport and active travel plan.

Work is due to start in 2021 and be completed in 2024.

Senior clinicians and practitioners have spoken of the huge benefits of the scheme for local communities and patient care.

Paul Bolton is the lead nurse for infection prevention and control at Bournemouth and Poole.

He said it would “really meet the needs for the future.”

Mr Bolton told the Echo: “Most of my involvement has been working with the clinical teams on how they want to plan services in the best interests of the patients. Whichever discipline was represent we have one aim, to deliver the very best care we can as safely as we can.

“So from my point of view that’s having the best hand hygiene in place, getting the flow right throughout the hospital, having lots of storage space, big wide corridors that are easy to clean and plenty of isolation rooms so we can look after people who may have an infection.”

He added: “Really good privacy is also important but there is a balance to be struck.

“We do not want to make patients feel they are in a goldfish bowl.

“But equally we want that patients can see the staff and the staff can see the patients and that’s really important.

“It would be really easy to design something where patients are in their one little rooms and staff just go in and out when they need to. But that’s not how we want to deliver healthcare.”

As lead for infection prevention and control, Mr Bolton says they have learned a lot from the coronavirus pandemic.

“What we have been designing for a long time now in terms of the new plans would have been okay dealing with the outbreak.

“But what we have really learned is that you need flexibility across all areas of the hospital and specialties. And how can you utilise as much space as possible.

“How you can segregate areas better and also see as many patients as possible?

“How can we deliver surgery safely and how do we deal with critical care?

“Those conversations are still ongoing, we are still forming parts of the plan The outside of the new building is one thing, but what’s inside the new hospital facilities will develop over time as we continue to learn globally from this pandemic.

“What’s been clear from the experience across many hospitals is that patients have been unwell in ways we weren’t expecting and we have had to deliver care in a different way for much longer than we expected. So we need to sure we can do.”

One of the biggest controversies in the pandemic has been the availability of PPE, a critical factor in infection prevention and control.

“One of the key things is to ensure staff have clear and safe places they can safely put on and take off their PPE,” said Mr Bolton.

“We also look very carefully at the flow from clean to dirty, especially in high risks areas like intensive care and surgery.

“The infection control team is working very closely with the clinical units on both sites and the one thing you can say in all areas is there has been lots of learning, adapting and flexibility to deliver really good health care safely.”

The longer term effects of coronavirus on patients, for example respiratory conditions, is still to be quantified.

The head of the emergency department at Poole, consultant Lee Gray described the development proposals as "a huge leap forward."

He said it would mean new state of the art clinical facilities and service, everything in the right place for patients and staff and everything planned and really carefully thought out transport links and active travel plans.

"If you were designing a health system from scratch it wouldn't be like it is now. The new plan is much more sensible.

"It also very refreshing that transport has been a central part of this from the beginning and that we have been listening to patients. There are multiple examples around the country where designer hospitals have been built but the transport and parking has been neglected or not given enough priority."

Mr Gray said he recognised the reorganisation of services had been "a passionate issue."

There would be lot of work and investment at Poole. "It's a really good hospital, has lots of local fans and is not being left behind."

He added: "This is an exciting new chapter. It's a new dawn at the end of what's been, because of coronavirus, a scary time for everyone."