Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is receiving an extra £4.4 million of capital funding for hospital upgrades, as part of the Government’s NHS winter preparations this year.
The £4.4 million – the biggest increase across the South West – is part of more vital funding to help ensure our NHS is prepared to cope with winter pressures and reduce the risks associated with further outbreaks of Covid.
Trusts have prioritised funding for their urgent and emergency care services locally and will mean improvements such as:
• increased A&E capacity including additional clinical space, cubicles, improvements to waiting areas and priority admission units;
• delivery of enhanced infection prevention and control measures;
• delivery of same day emergency care and improvements to patient flow.
This funding forms part of the £1.5 billion additional capital funding announced by the Prime Minister in June.
On top of this the Prime Minister has announced £3 billion of extra NHS funding to maintain the use of the Nightingales throughout winter, to ensure continued access to independent hospitals capacity to help meet patient demand, to improve hospital discharge arrangements, and to expand the flu vaccination programme.
This funding means our local NHS hospital trust will be able to put in place additional measures to support resilience during winter.
These are just some of the many preparations underway in the NHS, across government and in the wider health and care system to bolster winter delivery and resilience this year. The additional funding this winter will help the NHS to provide appropriate care to all those that need it, whilst operating in the unique and challenging circumstances presented by Covid-19.