LEIGHTON Hospital's A&E car park is to be closed off tomorrow (Friday) ahead of work on a new £15m Emergency Department.

Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the Crewe medical complex, received government funding last year to "reconfigure and expand emergency care services" and preparatory works started last month on the car park off Smithy Lane.

Hospital chiefs say the whole car park will close at 8pm on February 12, but stress alternative provisions have been made to access the existing Emergency Department during the building work.

While the hospital's A&E entrance will only be available to emergency vehicles, a new drop off and pick up point has been set up outside.

Patients and visitors attending A&E are being directed to the main entrance or maternity car parks, where an additional 77 spaces have been created to support any increase in demand.

The trust has submitted a planning application to Cheshire East Council for the 4,000 sq.metre two-storey modular building, which will be constructed off site and assembled on part of the A&E car park.

It includes an isolation facility for coronavirus patients, a resuscitation room, a paediatric suite, mental health assessment rooms and a bereavement suite as well as additional treatment rooms.

The extra space will allow the hospital to separate adult and child patients.

A&E attendances have been rising at Leighton, but the new facility could be open in time to support staff cope with next winter's pressures.

Consultant in Emergency Medicine Dr David Matthews said: "This is a very important and exciting development for our patients and staff at a time when the NHS has been tested to the maximum by a combination of continually increasing patient attendances, the coronavirus pandemic and the annual winter pressures which now seem to start earlier and last longer.

"The new department has been carefully designed to cater for a greater number of patients in a modern and purpose-built environment that allows clear separation of children and adults, an isolation facility for patients with coronavirus, a larger resuscitation room for the most sick and injured patients, and appropriate areas for friends, relatives and those with illnesses relating to their mental health.

"This will offer patients a better experience at a time which is often difficult and stressful for them."

Two link corridors will join the building to the existing ED; one to the Clinical Decisions Unit which was installed last year to increase space at the department, while the other will link with the ambulance bay area.

There will also be offices and staff facilities on its first floor.

Chief Executive of Mid Cheshire Hospitals James Sumner said: "The new ED will give us a bigger, better and safer environment for patients and staff.

"A&E attendances have increased across the country over recent years, including at Leighton Hospital, and so this is also an opportunity to meet the growing needs of our local population."

Staff at the hospital are set to benefit from an extended employee and overflow carpark, which includes more than 300 new spaces which will help the hospital site cope with any extra car park pressures triggered by the loss of the A&E car park.

A new car park control team is being put in place from next week to support and direct patients and staff.

The CEO added: "We would like to thank our staff and local community for their support with this exciting development, and to apologise for any inconvenience the works may cause.

"The ED build has been designed to keep disruption to a minimum."