Acute Medical Unit (AMU)

Our brand new £15.7m Acute Medical Unit (AMU) at Torbay Hospital was officially opened on Tuesday 29 November 2022.

The long awaited multi-million-pound project has delivered a new AMU which is split over two levels and sees a wide variety of patients who require varying levels of care. It has 36 assessment spaces and allows patients to receive timely, high quality care, in the right place. Referrals are taken from both the Emergency Department as well as directly from GPs, the community and other specialties.

The unit’s new location is of particular significance as it is located alongside our Emergency Department. Having these two units located side-by-side improves the flow of patients across the two departments allowing for more timely patient reviews and an overall enhanced patient experience.

Torbay Hospital’s League of Friends donated over £500,000 to the project with the funds helping to equip the AMU with new patient trolleys and recliners.

A huge team of designers, planners, engineers, architects – KTA, staff from across the Trust, and appointed construction partner Kier, worked hard to turn this vision into a reality.

Work began to prepare the site back in late 2020 and, in March 2021, a groundbreaking ceremony marked the official start of the building work.

During the build, over 1,000 people have worked on the site over the last two years with 243 tonnes of steel used to form the frame of the building. More than 1,100m3 of concrete has been used with over 100km of cabling laid and 460 light fittings installed. In addition, 92 per cent of all the construction waste was diverted from landfill.

Progress update (28 April 2022)

As many of you will have seen, work continues to progress well on our new £15million Acute Medical Unit (AMU). Since the arrival of the crane on site last month, almost 60 per cent of the external cladding has been fitted to the building and the roof is also on.

Internally, the partition walls have been going up as are the internal infrastructure works for air handling and electrics. The new lift housing and stairs have been fitted and we have also started to ‘breakthrough’ on levels 2 and 3 which will join the old building to the new. In the plant room, the installation of air handling equipment has also commenced.

Kier, our appointed contractor, will soon be starting to construct the retaining wall for the ambulance drop-off point, and excavations will start in the next few weeks to install a new water main.

Kier started the enabling works for the new AMU in spring / summer 2021 before the main construction works began in September. We anticipate that the AMU will be completed in Autumn 2022.

Did you know… The new unit will ensure that patients receive timely, high quality care, in the right place.

This exciting project will see the hospital receive a modern and fit-for-purpose unit which will be split over two levels. This will allow for patients with different levels of care to be treated in the most appropriate setting.

Groundbreaking ceremony (March 2021)

A socially distanced, groundbreaking ceremony has taken place at Torbay Hospital to mark the official start of construction on a new £15million Acute Medical Unit (AMU).

Liz Davenport, Chief Executive at Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust, said: “The construction of Torbay Hospital’s new Acute Medical Unit will transform the delivery of care for both patients and staff. The new facility will help ensure that patients continue to receive a high level of care in the most appropriate setting, and I thank everyone involved in the project that has enabled us to get to this point.

“I look forward to seeing the developments progress before we begin to see the benefits that this exciting development will bring for our patients, staff and visitors.”

Doug Lloyd, Operations Director for Kier Regional Building Western & Wales, states: “We were delighted to be joined by members of Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust at today’s groundbreaking ceremony which celebrates the start of works on this critically important new healthcare facility for Torbay Hospital.

“We have vast experience in delivering healthcare projects in a live hospital environment whilst maintain the critical ongoing services of the Trust and we will utilise our skills, alongside our local supply chain partners, to deliver a new building which provides state-of-the-art amenities to serve the hospital team and the people of Torbay in the future.”

Photo, left to right – Ed Wilson (Contracts Manager, Kier), John Harrison (Chief Operating Officer at Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust) and Paul Purser (Senior Project Manager, Kier), were joined at the groundbreaking ceremony by staff from the hospital.