Plans for multi-million pound new 'emergency village' at Worksop hospital take a step closer

An application sent to Bassetlaw District Council is seeking permission to allow temporary vehicle access from Blyth Road to allow construction traffic onto the site.

Following construction of the new facility, the area would then be reinstated as a carpark, submitted documents state.

Last year, we reported that Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals Trust, the organisation in charge of the hospital, was forced to spend £14,000 a month transferring sick children to Doncaster Royal Infirmary.

Hundreds of children a year have since made the 20-mile journey to the Doncaster site, which has a 24-hour paediatric ward.

Plans to build a mini children’s ward on the Worksop hospital site were officially been submitted to council planners in 2022.

Three possible solutions were put forward to the existing issues, including the ’emergency village’ and the mini children’s hospital.

A consultation on the ideas, which ran from December 2021 until February 2022, showed 84 per cent of nearly 2,000 respondents supported this option.

It features a unit with six overnight short-stay beds, eight assessment spaces and a further one or two treatment rooms.

This would mean 15 or 16 children and young people could receive care in the unit at any one time.

Other options included keeping the current, temporary arrangements with Doncaster Royal Infirmary, or building a unit which closes after 9pm.

Documents later revealed all emergency care services would be co-located in the new emergency village.

The unit would be built on part of an existing car park and would be designed to offer a “highly efficient and logically-planned” healthcare setting.

The design of the units will “minimise travel distances for patients” and offer “excellent flow for staff managing patients” from its entrance and reception through to the wards.

A children’s assessment unit would have its own entrance directly from the street, but it would also be interconnected with a paediatric emergency department.

The latest application for vehicle access will be considered by planners at Bassetlaw District Council at a future date.