Bosses at Great Western Hospital have been given the go-ahead to build a new urgent treatment centre.

And they hope the new facility will make things easier and more efficient for patients needing immediate help and staff working there.

The hospital will now be able to demolish the existing Clover centre – a portable cabin which is hosting the urgent treatment centre.

The hospital’s application said: “The Clover building is a flat-roofed structure built in 2003 with an expected life of 20 years. In recent years, it has been subject to frequent reactive repair work in order to preserve structural and waterproofing integrity.”

The new building will comprise a waiting room for 50 people with a separate waiting space for parents with children.

There will be 28 clinic rooms including a treatment room, a plaster room, an isolation clinic room and three rooms specially designed for paediatric care as well as a reception and administration office.

The design and placement of the building will be used to streamline patients trying to get immediate care. The application said: “At present there are multiple ‘points of entry’ to the Urgent & Emergency Care centre at the Trust. In some cases, patients themselves can select their point of entry. This drives inefficiencies arising from the frequent redirection of patients between U&EC services.

“Other than for emergency ‘blue light’ arrivals, we intend that all patients (except those with Covid) will access U&EC through a single initial assessment facility, so that clinical decision makers can direct patients appropriately to: Emergency Department, the Urgent Treatment Centre , the Same Day Emergency Care, Paediatric Assessment Unit or Medical and Surgical Assessment.”