WORK has officially begun on a new £247-million Emergency Care Building at Derriford Hospital – marking a major milestone in the Government’s New Hospital Programme and signalling the start of one of Plymouth’s largest ever healthcare investments.

The four-storey facility, due to open in 2028/29, will transform urgent and emergency care at University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust (UHP), helping to meet rising demand and ensuring that patients across Plymouth, Devon, and Cornwall receive faster, higher-quality treatment.

The start of construction was celebrated with a ceremony attended by key stakeholders from the New Hospital Programme, construction partners Mace and Willmott Dixon, Fred Thomas MP for Plymouth Moor View, as well as hospital staff and emergency department volunteers, Jan Lawrence, Eileen Pearce, Jean Stockwell, Wendy Tancock and David Short, who took part in a symbolic ground-breaking with ceremonial spades.

The ground floor will feature an expanded Emergency Department (ED), with the existing ED space reconfigured to serve as a dedicated Paediatric ED. On the first floor, a Same Day Emergency Care (SDEC) unit will provide urgent hospital treatment for patients who require same-day care, with follow-up managed in the community.

The second floor will house four state-of-the-art Interventional Radiology (IR) theatres, supporting advanced diagnosis and treatment using modern imaging technologies, along with a patient recovery area and staff rest facilities. Lastly, the third floor will include five new surgical theatres for both emergency and planned procedures, as well as a patient recovery area and staff office spaces.

In addition to enhancing clinical capacity, the building will provide a modern environment that meets current healthcare standards. Staff workspaces will be improved, and patients and their families will experience a better, more respectful and dignified journey through emergency care.

Stuart Windsor, Programme Director for Our Future Hospital, said: “It has been a long journey to get to today, but we will now finally see the new Emergency Care Building start to rise from the ground. This important building will provide the people of Plymouth and the wider Devon and Cornwall peninsula a facility that they can be proud of, and will finally give our clinicians the space to care.

“The new building is one part of the wider improvements that the hospital is making in Urgent and Emergency Care, which will allow us to continue the improvement in the quality and timeliness of the care that we offer. I would like to thank all of those who have provided support for this scheme over the years – it is great to see the project visibly happening.”

The investment has been welcomed by Charlotte Taylor and Paul Mustow, New Hospital Programme joint senior responsible owners, who added: “We’re delighted the construction of Derriford’s new Emergency Care Building is commencing and is the first of the Wave 1 schemes in the New Hospital Programme to begin main construction. We appreciate the hard work and dedication of all those involved to get to this stage and look forward to seeing the new hospital developing.”