Keys to the new wing at Kirkcaldy’s Victoria Hospital will be formally handed over to NHS Fife on October 28 another major milestone in the multi-million pound project.
The £170 million development is almost complete and health chiefs are now counting the days until services can start moving in.
Developers Consort Balfour Beatty will hand over the keys on the final Friday of this month and following that the building will be given a full clinical clean to ensure it meets NHS standards.
Then all eyes will turn to December, when it is anticipated the first wards will be able to move in.
All services will then transfer over to the new-look Vic in phases, with all service moves likely to be completed by the middle of February 2012.
Wards at Victoria Hospital will move to the new wing in mid-December, before maternity and children’s services will relocate from Forth Park Hospital to the new wing in mid-January.
Accident and emergency services from Dunfermline’s Queen Margaret Hospital will also switch in the middle of January, along with other wards, although a minor injuries unit will remain at Queen Margaret.
Ward and departmental moves to the new wing are expected to be completed the following month, while NHS Fife plans to further develop the Diagnostic and Treatment Centre at Queen Margaret in February.
Further parking spaces will be available when the new wing opens, along with disabled parking close to the entrance of the new wing, while a travel planning group – which includes representatives from NHS Fife, Fife Council, local bus companies and members of the public – is currently developing a travel plan to ensure public transport links to and from the hospital are improved.
Members of the public can use the plan to help them decide the most suitable transport options available for travel to and from the new wing.
A series of public roadshows, which have been running over the summer, will continue over the coming months to keep locals up-to-date with all the latest information on the opening of the new wing and related service moves.
The next will be at the Postings Shopping Centre in Kirkcaldy on Wednesday, October 19, from 10am to 4pm, with further events planned for the Kingdom Centre in Glenrothes on Wednesday, October 26, and the Kingsgate Centre, Dunfermline, on Wednesday, November 2.
The new wing is just part of NHS Fife’s General Hospitals and Maternity Services (GH&MS) Project which also includes the closure of Forth Park Hospital and the move of maternity services to the new wing and the move of A&E services to the new wing with a dedicated Minor Injuries Service at Queen Margaret Hospital.
Around 80% of day case surgery is also expected to move to Queen Margaret in the coming weeks and months.