New Unit For Bournemouth Hospital

A new cancer and blood disorder unit's a step closer to being built at the Royal Bournemouth Hospital along with a Women's Health Unit.

The Board of Directors at the Royal Bournemouth Hospital has given the go-ahead to detailed designing of the new 'Jigsaw' building; a purpose-built cancer and blood disorders unit as well as new Women's Health Unit.

The proposal will fully use the funds raised from the current and previous Jigsaw Appeals, as well as committing further NHS funds.

The two-floor building would be built at RBH between the Eye Unit and the Derwent Suite for Orthopaedics (subject to detailed planning permission). The Trust already has outline permission for the location of the new building.

New facilities for oncology and haematology patients on one floor would focus on day care and outpatients, which make up the vast bulk of the service.

Breast care and gynaecology would be on the other floor in a dedicated women's health unit; bringing many services together to ensure better privacy and dignity and more one-stop services in more spacious surroundings.

The Trust will now engage with patients and the public for their views on the design and layout of the units. Following this the building work will be subject to a public tender process.

Patient and public feedback will also help inform the detailed planning application which has a target submission date of March next year. Once planning is agreed there is an estimated build time of 12 months.

Jane Stichbury, Chairman of the Board of Directors and Charity Trustees, said:

"The Board is delighted to be able to commit the first tranche of funding and to start the next phase of this exciting project.

"We have had previous delays but we now have a proposal that will fully use all the money raised in an exciting way. It really does complete the jigsaw of excellent services that will now be delivered in excellent facilities."

The charity funds raised to date for the Women's Health Unit, plus the Board's support, comes to just under £1.4 million, about £100k below the original target. This remaining gap will still need to be filled but the Appeal continues to receive support, such as from organisations that have named Jigsaw as their Charity of the Year.

Rather than wait for the last amount to be raised the Board has agreed to bring forward the design and patient engagement work for both the Cancer and Blood Disorders and Women's Health Units. If more than the outstanding £100k is raised then there are further features and equipment that can be added to as extras beyond what is planned.

Richard Renaut, Director of Service Development, said:

"Both Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals receive tremendous support from volunteers and charitable giving, for which patients and staff alike are very grateful for. This allows us to provide even better care to patients than we would otherwise."

"Having focused for several years on these two specific services we will now progress spending the funds raised as they were intended.

"We'll then start looking across both hospitals at other patient priority areas for things we can do that are above and beyond the taxpayer funded services. As a result we'll be asking our supporters to help us identify the next areas where they want to work with us on improving our services for local patients."

To find out how to get involved log on to www.jigsawappeal.org.uk