A NEW emergency care floor at St Mary's Hospital, improvements to the ambulance service and community health hubs are among the spending priorities for the Isle of Wight NHS Trust's £48 million investment funding.

The trust was awarded the funding in 2019 by government to improve services for the community, and the trust has since created its 'Investing in our future' strategy.

In an update given at the Isle of Wight NHS Trust's annual general meeting today (Thursday), Darren Cattell, director of finance, laid out what the plan is so far.

Of the £48 million awarded, £10 million will be invested in additional beds at the Portsmouth Hospital University Trust to 'ensure greater resilience for the Island population' when they are treated on the mainland.

The remaining £38 million will be invested to directly support healthcare buildings and IT on the island.

Initial plans for the whole sum, based on an acute services review in 2018, would have seen £30 million invested off-Island to benefit island patients but plans have since changed.

Mr Cattell said he was excited about the Portsmouth partnership as well as some of the work proposed for St Mary's.

Some of the investments include:

  • A new emergency care floor and integrated high dependency unit at St Mary's
  • The first of three hubs to bring community, mental health and primary care services together - one at St Mary's, one in Newport town centre and in Sandown
  • Digital infrastructure investments, including in the ambulance service

Mr Cattell said: "We are in our planning phase but I’m really pleased the board has approved the wider area network business case for the first of £2m investment in our digital technology to improve our infrastructure and to help us move forward at pace with all our applications and clinical systems.

"We have a real opportunity now to make a significant difference in our journey to outstanding."

The Isle of Wight NHS Trust has today been awarded 'good' in its most recent Care Quality Commission inspection, following a 'requires improvement' rating in 2019.

The change in rating has also brought the NHS Trust out of special measures.

Executives say they are now planning on how to reach 'outstanding' in its next inspection.