King's in process of building biggest Critical Care Centre

South London’s King’s College Hospital is building a state-of-the-art 60-bed Critical Care Centre which, when added to the existing Critical Care wards at the trust, will be the largest and most progressive of its kind in the UK.

According to King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation trust, the new £100 million unit will open in two stages, initially this summer before the second phase opening in early 2020. The move will bring the total number of critical care beds at the trust to over 120.

Focusing on space and light, the innovative design will have floor to ceiling windows overlooking Ruskin Park and will see the latest technology spread over two floors. Furthermore, patients will have control of their environment, allowing them to move the position of their bed to face the window or turn inwards to be with family and friends.

Tom Best, consultant in Critical Care at King’s, said “Some of our most unwell patients spend weeks or even months in critical care while they recover from life-threatening conditions. We know from feedback that a significant number of patients suffer from delirium as they drift in and out of consciousness, which can be very frightening and can delay recovery.

“During these prolonged hospital stays it’s vital that we care for the mind as well as the body. The new centre will use art and furnishings to create a more calming, less apparently clinical and frightening environment while still offering the latest advances in technology. This will enable staff to treat the patients with the very best equipment, and help patients stay in touch with the outside world to aid their recovery. As last year’s major incidents demonstrated, there’s a real need to provide the highest level of emergency and ongoing intensive care to give patients the very best chance of survival. At King’s, we’re very proud that our critical care service is consistently at the top in terms of survival, and our new centre will allow us to extend our expertise to even more people in London and beyond.”

The hospital is also fundraising to create a unique roof garden to help critically unwell patients who suffer common side-effects, such as delirium, which, if built, will be fully equipped to enable patients to be taken outside for fresh air to enhance the recovery process.