Groundbreaking celebrated at Worthing Hospital’s £7m Urgent Treatment Centre and A&E expansion

A multi-million-pound improvement programme to expand the Emergency Department at Worthing Hospital began on Friday (22nd November) with a special ground-breaking event.

Urgent and Emergency Care and Capital Development colleagues were joined by invited guests and construction partners Morgan Sindall Construction to celebrate building works getting underway for a new Urgent Treatment Centre (UTC) in West Sussex.

Morgan Sindall Construction and Crowther Architects were appointed to the project by the University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust and the UTC was procured via SCAPE, one of the UK’s leading public sector procurement authorities.

UTCs provide urgent medical help for people when their condition is not life-threatening. They offer appointments via the NHS 111 service and are equipped to investigate, diagnose and treat the most common illnesses people come to A&E for.

Worthing Hospital’s new single-storey, steel frame facility will include a large waiting room plus 12 consultation rooms and clinical support areas. The development will also see the existing A&E entrance relocated to facilitate the new building.

Extensive collaboration and coordination will be required throughout to ensure minimal disruption to the busy hospital’s operations. This will include during the infilling of the existing courtyard, which is surrounded on three sides by existing buildings, as well as when breaking through existing perimeter walls. The project will also involve extensive works within existing areas to provide electricity, water and heating services.

Elements of the construction process that will require especially careful attention will include reducing noise and vibration to the nearby A&E, maternity and X-Ray areas as well as when materials and equipment will need to be moved across the hospital’s ‘blue light’ route.

Worthing Hospital Emergency Department is the busiest in West Sussex, seeing around 100,000 people a year. Demand is growing too, by around 5% a year, mostly driven by a rise in the number of people coming to the department by themselves for urgent care. The new UTC will treat at least 40,000 patients a year, who will all use the Emergency Department’s new main entrance, reception and waiting areas.

Following a 10-month construction programme and clinical commissioning period, patients can expect to be using the new facility from Autumn 2025. Once open, work will begin on the Same Day Emergency Care unit in the space vacated in the hospital’s East Wing by the current UTC.

Hospital Director Stephen Mardlin said:

We’re delighted to see the construction begin on this £7m expansion of our Emergency Department because it will have such a transformative effect for our patients, A&E colleagues and the rest of the hospital.

Located right at the front of the hospital, this development will create a new entrance for all urgent walk-in attendances, a larger waiting room, and 12 new consultation rooms and clinical support areas. It also clears the way for us to develop a Same Day Emergency Care (SDEC) unit for the first time in the hospital, to be situated where the current UTC is.”

Hospital Director for Nursing, Tori Cooper added:

We’re responding to the needs of our local population and in particular our more elderly and frail patients. Both the UTC and SDEC will enable us to improve care for older people by providing treatment more quickly at the front door of the hospital that will help them to avoid being admitted into the hospital for a ward stay.

We know people want to stay in their own homes if they can, and all the evidence shows that maintaining people’s independence and providing swift access to medical care in day units is much better for their both their health and wellbeing. These improvements will also enable our emergency and trauma care specialists to focus on the patients who need them most.”

Guy Hannell, Area Director for Morgan Sindall Construction in the Southern Home Counties, said:

We’re excited to be celebrating the start of work onsite for Worthing Hospital's new Urgent Treatment Centre, as we know that once complete the centre is going to deliver a wide range of valuable benefits for the hospital’s staff and local community.

We’ve worked closely with Worthing Hospital to develop a design for the new facility that’s tailored to the site’s needs and to ensure that the construction process is carefully coordinated to minimise disruption to the hospital’s vital daily operations.”

West Worthing MP, Dr Beccy Cooper, who attended the ground-breaking event as the Trust’s guest of honour, said:

Such a significant investment in the town’s Emergency Department and creation of a new Urgent Treatment Centre is excellent news for everyone living locally.

Speaking with staff today, it’s great to hear how excited they are to improve access and facilities for patients. I am delighted to see the works get underway and cannot wait to return next year when the UTC opens to the public.”

The investment in urgent and emergency care at Worthing Hospital is part of a widespread commitment by University Hospitals Sussex to expand and modernise the Trust’s Emergency Departments.

Morgan Sindall Construction has also worked alongside the University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust on a new Same Day Emergency Care unit and a Clinical Decision Unit, which began operating this year at St Richard’s Hospital in Chichester and Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath.

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For more information about urgent and emergency care provided by University Hospitals Sussex, please visit www.uhsussex.nhs.uk/services/accident-emergency/urgent-care/