Stockport NHS Foundation Trust is to be awarded £30.6m to build an ambitious emergency care campus at Stepping Hill Hospital.

The funding was announced nationally today (5 August) as one of 20 new NHS upgrades to support Sustainability and Transformation Partnership (STP) transformation across the country.

Louise Robson, Chief Executive, said: “This is very welcome news and a real cause for celebration, particularly for our emergency department staff, who provide such excellent care for patients day in and day out despite the rising demand on the service, and the current limitation of the building and the local health and care system.

“The £30.6m will enable us to transform not only the environment from which we provide emergency care to the people of Stockport and the surrounding area, but it will also give local people a choice about how their health needs are met.”

The Trust has recently spent £1.2m provided by NHS England to expand the number of consulting and treatment rooms in the existing emergency department, but the new funding will enable the organisation to construct a three storey purpose built emergency care campus. It will include an urgent care treatment centre, GP assessment unit, and planned investigation unit, as well as a new ambulance access road, and improved waiting areas.

Mrs Robson added: “We have been working closely with our partners across Stockport on a range of schemes to improve emergency care, but this funding will allow us to make an ambitious programme a reality for the people of Stockport and the surrounding area.”

The new development is earmarked to be built on a temporary car park opposite the current emergency department. It will be subject to public consultation and will require planning permission from the local authority, but it is anticipated that it will take two to three years to build the campus.