Work starts on £20m unit to cut Northwick Park A&E wait times

The unit will be built on top of the existing A&E department at the Harrow hospital and should be ready to use by spring 2024.

As they are prefabricated, they will be lifted onto the roof by crane before being joined together.

The London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust successfully bid for a pot of money from NHS England to increase general and acute bed capacity.

It is hoped the £20m unit will reduce the amount of waiting time patients wait in A&E for a bed, improve patient safety and reduce ambulance waits.

A CGI render showing how the hospital will look once complete (Image: LNWH)

Currently the Watford Road hospital has to put patients in ward corridors during the day and the resuscitation unit tends to run at full capacity.

In a previous report last year, a woman, who did not want to be named, waited two and a half hours as her father required an “urgent” check-up, and claims others said they had to wait nearly eight hours.

“It was almost standing room only, there was just nowhere to sit,” she added.

Trust chief executive Pippa Nightingale said: “We have one of the biggest and busiest A&Es in the country so this is a welcome and much needed addition to our capacity.

“It’s crucial to maintain flow through the hospital so we have enough beds. An enormous amount of work goes on behind-the-scenes every day to ensure this happens. The new unit will help us better manage this.”