Northwick Park Hospital gets £20m for 32-bed ward

The London North West University Health Care NHS Trust says the ward will meet the growing demand for acute care beds

A London hospital is to build a 32-bed ward.

The £20m unit will be funded by a government grant awarded to the trust which runs Northwick Park Hospital, in Harrow.

The London North West University Health Care NHS Trust says the ward will meet the growing demand for acute care beds.

It says currently, on average, nine patients are placed in corridors each day due to lack of beds.

The trust said the unit would "improve the flow of patients through our site, improving our emergency performance and the experience of our patients".

In February, the trust bid for money to increase the number of general and acute beds at the hospital by winter 2024 in anticipation of a predicted rise in demand for beds.

In June, the hospital urged people not to go to A&E unless it was absolutely necessary after seeing a record number of patients in one week, with 700 people treated on one day alone.

The hospital currently has a total of 500 beds and no spare capacity.

It hopes that by increasing the capacity by 32 it will help reduce the number of patients waiting in the emergency department for a bed, improve ambulance handover times and allow additional capacity to manage seasonal demands. 

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