Refurbishment of West Atrium at NNUH gets underway

From 6th March, the refurbishment of the West Atrium begins at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital which will affect the main staff and visitor restaurant.

Completion is planned for the 6th April and during the month long works the West Atrium – one of the eight entrances to the hospital – will be closed.  Patients will be asked to enter the building via the East Atrium about 100m away.  The East Atrium was refurbished in a similar four week programme in 2008.  

This change will affect the hospital entrance used by pregnant women who will be advised to use the East Atrium entrance by their community midwife.  Patients coming to hospital for pre-operative assessments will be advised to go to the Arthur South Day Procedure Unit. 

Hot meals for visitors will still be available at the hospital’s Deli2go café on the hospital plaza run by service provider Serco plus coffee and snacks will be served in the hospital’s two outpatient café areas also run by Serco.  A temporary staff restaurant will be set up in a marquee and patient catering on the wards will not be affected. 

Head of Facilities Bob Wotton says:  “We apologise in advance for any inconvenience to patients while the work is taking place. It is part of our PFI partner’s commitment to maintaining the hospital to the highest standards.”

“There is also an intention to upgrade the counters in the restaurant which will provide for a wider selection of food and in continuing the commitment to reducing energy, it is also intended to replace the lighting with low energy LED lighting.” 

NNUH has been praised for its deep clean and refurbishment programme in the Department of Health’s “From Deep Clean to Keep Clean, Learning from the Deep Clean Programme” report.  Combined with the cleaning service provided Serco, it has meant the Trust has been rated as Excellent on cleanliness for the three years running by the National Patient Safety Agency.  NNUH is the only hospital in the region to be rated as excellent for both catering and cleaning.