Completion largest emergency department in Northern Netherlands getting ever closer

Since last October, hard work is being done to build an Emergency Department with which Medisch Centrum Leeuwarden can make a good quality improvement. More space and better routes outside as well as inside. More privacy for patients and workplaces that do justice to both simple emergency care and highly complex care in serious situations. On 23 November, Mayor Ferd Crone officially gave the go-ahead for the construction and by now it will only take 9 more weeks to open the largest Emergency Department in the north of the Netherlands.

GROWTH AND AMBITION

The construction project marks a new step in the strategic plan, which MCL has set out to belong to the top of top clinical hospitals. For years, it was a tight fit in the Emergency Department and the influx has continued to increase to over 26,000 emergency room visits per year by now. 'We have grown enormously, both in numbers as in tasks and possibilities, but also in quality awareness,' says Bettine Onnes, doctor and medical manager of the Emergency Department. 'And that calls for a radically different set-up. I can hardly wait for the new construction to be completed.'

Recognisable and safe

To increase the recognisability of the new construction for the visitor, the entrance awning is given a similar design to the main entrance of MCL. Access to the emergency room also constitutes the night entrance of the hospital. The layout and location of the new construction also result in better and safer routing. In the new situation, the visitor drives straight from the public road to the entrance of the Emergency Department, while the ambulances take the bus lane to the entrance on the eastern side of the building. Thus there is no question of intersecting lines anymore.