Park and Ride campaign launched as major construction project takes place at NNUH
Work gets underway this week to build a new floor on the east wing of the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital which will house a new Interventional Radiology Unit (IRU), doubling the number of radiology and cardiology procedure rooms at the hospital.
During the nine month construction phase, the car park nearest the Emergency Department will be used as a construction site, reducing parking on site by 70 spaces out of 800 patient and visitor parking spaces. Patients using the Emergency Department will be asked to use the Urgent Care Unit entrance to the building. The ambulance parking area has also been reconfigured around the building works.
Patients and visitors who are making routine visits to the hospital are being asked to use the Costessey Park and Ride service where possible. The service runs every 15 minutes from 6.30am to 8.20pm, every weekday, for £1 per person for a return journey, compared with a minimum parking fee of £3 for up to two hours. The hospital will be running a campaign to raise awareness of the Park and Ride option by including information in patient letters, on posters, and through social media.
Simon Hackwell, Director of Strategy at NNUH, says: “This development will help us to meet increasing demand on services, reduce waiting times for patients and enable NNUH staff to offer new services in the future such as stroke thrombectomy where blood clots are directly removed from the brain following a stroke. Over the coming months there will be some inconvenience on site as the construction works take place and we are asking patients to bear with us and use the excellent Park and Ride Services wherever possible.”
The new Interventional Radiology Unit (IRU) will double the number of radiology and cardiology procedure rooms at the hospital. Interventional Radiology is a minimally invasive alternative to open surgery that uses radiological image guidance such as x-ray, ultrasound, CT and MRI to diagnose and treat a wide range of conditions. The car park will reopen in early 2020 and the new services will be running from Spring 2020.