The new facility opening on 28 August, which is for emergency drop-off and blue badge holders only, if the first step in the £19.3 million project to expand the Lister’s emergency department
A new car park will open on Tuesday, 28 August 2012 in front the Lister’s emergency department. Representing the first stage in the department’s £19.3 million expansion due for completion in late 2014, the new car park will be smaller than its predecessor and provide emergency drop-off and parking for blue badge holders only. Ambulances, of course, will continue to have separate access to their own entrance to the emergency department. The rest of the former car park is where the new emergency department extension will be built, work on which begins shortly.
The new car park will provide five parking spaces for blue badge holders – significantly more than previously. There will also be 15 emergency drop-off spaces, with all longer-term parking for patients and their visitors being in the Lister’s multi-storey car park.
The Trust’s chief executive, Nick Carver, said:
“Opening the new car park marks completion – one time and budget – of the first step in the creation of the Lister’s new £19.3 million emergency department. With construction on its extension – which covers a third of the old car park – due to start before the end of August, we are on our way to providing a fantastic new unit that will meet the emergency needs of everyone living and working in east and north Hertfordshire, as well as parts of Bedfordshire when it opens towards the end of 2014.
“This work forms part of the Lister’s final £150 million transformation. Part of the same phase is the current expansion of the hospital’s critical care unit, as well as the refurbishment of ward 7A and redeveloping our mortuary. All three projects will be completed a little later this year.
“The biggest outstanding projects are the creation of the Lister’s new ward and theatres blocks. The approval process for their full business cases has now begun and we hope to see building work to begin later this year.”
Access to and from the new car park will continue to be via Coreys Mill Lane, although the access points and road layouts will change. Traffic flows within the nearby Surgicentre’s car park will also be altered to make accessing this part of the Lister site easier for all concerned. The emergency department’s new car park will also have improved pedestrian walkways, with ambulance services continuing to have separate access to their dedicated entrances to and from the department.
People wishing to access areas in the Lister other than the emergency department are asked to use the hospital’s main entrance – pedestrian access via the emergency department is for this service only.
