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FIRST PATIENTS WELCOMED AT NEW ROYAL LIVERPOOL UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL
The new Royal Liverpool University Hospital has welcomed its first patients as outpatient services begin operating from the new building .
More than 360 patients passed through the doors and outpatient clinics continued to operate throughout the week at the new hospital .
James Sumner , Chief Executive at Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust , said :
“ This is a real milestone for the new Royal as we welcome our first outpatients to Liverpool ’ s new state-of-the-art hospital .
“ The new Royal is for the people of Liverpool and the city region and we are so proud that we can start to give our patients , staff and local communities the long-awaited hospital they deserve .”
In order to allow patients time to familiarise themselves with their new hospital , outpatients will operate at a reduced capacity that will increase in stages over the next four weeks , with appointments being allocated according to clinical priority .
The outpatients department is located across the ground and lower ground floors of the new hospital , and these patients will be the first to use the new digital check-in which has been designed to speed up the appointment process .
The hospital is undertaking a phased 24 day move from the current Royal , which started on Wednesday 28th September , and the first inpatients were transferred to the hospital on Monday 10th October .
During the move , staff and volunteers will be on hand to assist with any queries or wayfinding around the new building .
People are being asked to continue using the A & E department at the old Royal until later this month when the service transfers to the new building .
The new Royal has been designed to reflect the patient journey , placing key specialisms adjacent to each other , providing faster access to specialist care when required and improving patient flow through treatment .
The hospital has 640 beds with en-suite facilities , 18 state-of-theart operating theatres , for both inpatient and day-case surgery and 40 critical care beds for patients in ICU ( intensive care unit ) and HDU ( high dependency unit ). In addition , a large clinical research facility will place LUHFT as a national and international leader in clinical trials and studies .
The latest information on the move into the new Royal is available at www . liverpoolft . nhs . uk / new-royal merseylife . com 15