Improvement work set for St Mark's Hospital outpatient department building

Works to make improvements to St Mark’s Hospital’s outpatient department building are set to take place next year.

This news comes alongside an update on the progression of a £5.3million project to relocate the Jubilee Ward from Upton Hospital to St Mark’s.

Minor building work will be taking place to improve the ‘capacity and quality of healthcare provision’ within the outpatient department building at the site of the hospital in St Mark’s Road.

The works are planned to take place over the summer next year, Frimley Integrated Care Board (ICB) said.

“This work is part of a wider Urgent Emergency Care programme across the system that seeks to improve alternatives to A&E attendance, and for St Mark’s will see improved facilities in the same day primary care department,” a spokesperson for the ICB added.

The hospital offers a range of services to patients from audiology to mobility services, physiotherapy, sexual health services, rehabilitation and the Urgent Primary Care Service, which opened its doors in 2023.

The Advertiser recently visited the hospital to find out more about the Urgent Primary Care Service.

While campaigners have long been calling for the minor injuries walk-in centre to re-open since it closed during the COVID-19 pandemic, clinicians have rejected these calls and backed the new model.

The hospital also houses the Henry Tudor ward, which is an inpatient ward for short stays.

At the end of last year, NHS authorities began consulting on plans to relocate the Jubilee Ward, also an inpatient ward designed for short stays, from Upton Hospital in Slough to St Mark’s.

The move will see the Jubilee Ward ‘co-located’ with the Henry Tudor Ward.

The Jubilee Ward was built in the early 1900s and is considered to be ‘no longer fit for purpose’.

An independent appraisal of the options found St Mark’s ‘exceeded all options’ in relation to longevity and quality for patients, and would see benefits, including increased ‘access to more consultant and senior clinician time’.

In March, the Advertiser reported that the new ward will feature 21 beds, special bariatric beds for those living with severe obesity and in need of treatment, and ensuite side rooms.

There would also be an improved gym area and dining room, garden access for visitors and patients and an improved rest area for staff.

Since last year, Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust has been progressing with the plans to deliver the ‘newly refurbished, purpose-designed facility’ at St Mark’s.

The £5.3million project, delivered with NHS England and NHS Property Services, will ‘provide modern, safe and therapeutic accommodation for patients’, NHS Frimley ICB said.

The construction is set to commence later this month, with the new ward expected to be completed in late summer 2026.

The move ‘will be carefully managed to ensure continuity of patient care’, the ICB added.