Major expansion approved for The Walton Centre

A major expansion of The Walton Centre NHS Foundation Trust has been given the go-ahead.

Planning consent has been granted for a new, three-storey building to house an expanded Neuro Rehabilitation Unit and the Trust’s pioneering Pain Management Programme.

The new centre is a key part of a five year plan to provide more services to more patients with brain and spine conditions.

Construction of the new building will start next year, and is the second phase of the Trust’s expansion programme. The planning approval also enables the Trust to press on with the first phase - a new 29-bed ward, two extra operating theatres and a new Clinical Trials Unit, within the existing building.

Demand for The Walton Centre’s specialist services has grown continuously since the Trust was established 20 years ago and the last few years in particular have seen pressures build on staff and facilities.

Chief Executive Dr Liz Mear said: “This is the biggest building project we have undertaken since The Walton Centre opened and it will make a huge difference to our patients and our staff.

“It will help us to achieve our aims of providing innovative, caring services and carrying out pioneering research to advance our knowledge of neuroscience.”

She added: “At the moment we are constantly working at full capacity and we need to expand in order to treat all the patients who need our services.  This building programme will provide much-needed extra beds and operating space.”

Dr Peter Enevoldson, Medical Director said:  “The NHS in Merseyside and Cheshire has agreed to make our neurorehabilitation service its specialist centre for rehabilitation across the region, recognising the quality of its expertise and care. However, our current unit, though it provides excellent outcomes for patients, is neither big enough nor does it have the modern facilities we need.

“We are all very excited about the future and we are looking forward to this expansion in order to support the excellent, specialist treatment and research being carried out by our dedicated teams.”

To facilitate the building works, the Pain Management Programme is moving for two years to Jubilee House, a temporary building on the Aintree/ Walton campus, before relocating to the new building when it is complete.

Dr Mear said: “While we are keeping disruption to patient services to a minimum, a number of our staff are being asked to relocate temporarily and I am very grateful for their support during the changes. The result will be a much improved environment which will be better suited to the high quality of care expected by our patients.”

The expansion is part of a five-year strategy developed by the Trust, and consulted widely across the region, which also involves taking services closer to patients using advanced community nurses, running clinics in GP centres around Merseyside, Cheshire and North Wales and further development of neurosurgery and pain services.

Clinicians are being encouraged and supported in carrying out more research so that patients will benefit from more effective treatments in the future.

A full copy of the business plan is available at: www.thewaltoncentre.nhs.uk or by emailing: communications@thewaltoncentre.nhs.uk.