Taunton's Musgrove Park Hospital plans for new £11.5m unit unveiled

The hospital will be reconfigured to make way for the new hub

A hospital is to be expanded and existing units are to be moved as part of an £11.5m revamp to make way for a new acute assessment centre.

Under the proposals, unveiled by Taunton and Somerset NHS Foundation Trust, Taunton's Musgrove Park Hospital's therapies unit will be moved to a new three-storey extension.

The new centre will be created next to A&E and include 22 beds.

The district council is due to make a decision on the plans in November.

The trust, which runs the hospital, was given almost £91m from its treasury in 2018 to improve Musgrove Park's buildings.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service said that the remaining £79.4m was due to be spent on a new surgical centre, which would replace current operating theatres and critical care facilities.

'Cut waiting times'

The ground floor of the Queen's building will be refurbished and extended in order to make room for the new acute assessment "hub".

The neighbouring Duchess building will be extended to include the therapies unit.

The trust indicated in July it would also need to relocate its hydrotherapy pool to a different part of the hospital site.

During the shake-up, patients needing hydrotherapy will have to travel to Dene Barton Community Hospital in Cotford St Luke.

Ian Boswall, the trust's director of redevelopment, said: "Musgrove was originally built during the Second World War as a temporary casualty evacuation hospital for the D-Day landings.

"These buildings were never intended to provide modern, complex hospital care, let alone 21st Century critical care and theatre facilities."

He added the new facilities would "improve patient privacy and dignity", enabling new technology to be introduced, waiting times to be cut, and recovery times from surgery to be reduced.