THE Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH) will receive more than £6million in government funding to help with preparations for winter.

The trust, which runs both the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital (RSH) and the Princess Royal Hospital (PRH) in Telford, will receive £6.3m in a bid to ease pressure on hospital staff in the coming months.

Money will be used to create a new Same Day Emergency Care centre (SDEC) at the RSH which will help ease pressure on its A&E, and reduce hospital admissions.

It will also enable the expansion of the current A&E to provide additional patient cubicles.

The announcement comes after SaTH was awarded £2m by the government in August, with the funding being used to convert the former Wrekin Midwife Led Unit at PRH into a Priorities Admissions Unit.

The new SDEC, which will be housed in a two-storey medical modular building, will be located outside the A&E department and is expected to be operational in the New Year.

Nigel Lee, chief operating officer at SaTH, has welcomed the further investment ahead of what is set to be a challenging time for hospitals.

He said: “This additional investment is very much welcomed and enables us to relocate our current SDEC to a purpose-built facility.

“Winter is always a challenging time as the demands on our services are high, and this year we are also in a pandemic which brings with it other challenges.

“This new facility will help to reduce pressure on our A&E and on our beds, and improve care for our patients.

“Patients seen in the SDEC will be treated and sent home the same day – avoiding the need for a hospital admission.

“Our current A&E is small, and so this funding will also enable us to expand the floor space by relocating our Fracture Clinic, and provide additional cubicles and waiting space for patients requiring treatment.”