Stroud General Hospital to get £2m investment

Stroud General Hospital was first opened in the 1870s

A health trust is to spend £2m on bringing parts of a Victorian-era hospital up to modern standards.

Two areas of Stroud General Hospital will close later in August so the work can begin.

The Jubilee Ward and Minor Injuries and Illness Unit (MIIU) are both in part of the original hospital opened in 1875 and will be completely redesigned.

Inpatients will be moved to Circencester Hospital while the work is carried out.

A special unit is being set up at Cirencester Hospital to take patients from the 16-bed Jubilee Ward.

Patients who have MIIU appointments booked will be seen elsewhere in the hospital, but those who have not booked are being encouraged to use alternative services such as NHS 111 or pharmacies.

Director of strategy and partnerships at Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust (GHC) Angela Potter said: "We're delighted to announce this important piece of work to modernise a large area of Stroud Hospital, which will ensure it will remain a key resource for healthcare for years to come."

Despite several major investments at the hospital in recent years, the part of the hospital which includes Jubilee Ward and the MIIU ward has not had any significant improvements, apart from new shower rooms in 2012.

The trust said the current layout in both areas makes it hard to isolate infectious patients from others, and poor ventilation means rooms can get very hot.

In the impending refurbishment, which is being partly paid for by the Stroud Hospitals League of Friends, larger consulting and treating rooms will be created in the MIIU and beds in the ward will be further spaced out and air conditioning added.

Walk-in appointments at the MIIU will stop from the evening of 20 August. The unit is expected to reopen in late December 2021 and the Jubilee Ward in January 2022.