GREAT Western Hospital has been given almost £30m to help redesign emergency care.

The hospital applied for the £29.6m grant as part of a £45m project to move the acute medical unit to an expanded emergency department on the ground floor of the hospital, creating a single front door for all emergency care wards. 

The cash will also help fund a "transitional care facility", understood to be an intensive rehabilitation service aimed at supporting patients in their own homes.

GWH is one of 75 NHS trusts across England to benefit from the £1bn funding pot.

Robert Buckland, MP for South Swindon, said: “This is great news for Swindon and for GWH. They have worked hard to secure this investment and I have continued to lobby the Health Secretary to make it become a reality.”

Justin Tomlinson, North Swindon MP, added: “I am delighted that we have secured this important investment in the GWH. Both Robert & I lobbied to deliver this funding and the Government has rightly seen how it will transform both emergency care and transitional care in Swindon.

"This new £30m site will ensure the patients can get access to the right treatment, in the right place, at the right time. Crucially, this is announcement builds on the record funding in the NHS we already have under this Conservative government.”

Bosses at GWH have long warned that the 2002 hospital is not large enough to cope with growing demand.

In July, strategy director Kevin McNamara told the Adver the hospital estimated it would need an extra 60 to 80 beds by 2028. Demand for inpatient beds will increase by around 30 per cent over the next decade as Swindon expands and the population ages.

For more, read tomorrow's Swindon Advertiser.