Two Portakabin buildings have been installed at Staffordshire's main hospital to allow patients and staff to stay socially distanced during the pandemic

The temporary clinical building and waiting room at the Royal Stoke will provide more space for the hospital's children's ward over the next two years.

The waiting room has been installed outside the main hospital building off Hilton Road, while the clinical ward space Portakabin will open on the nearby car park this week.

This has resulted in the loss of 20 parking spaces, which are being 're-provided' at the Royal Infirmary site.

The 470 square metre ward building includes 12 consulting rooms along with a reception, waiting area, an office and toilets.

Managers at University Hospitals of North Midlands, which runs the Royal Stoke, say the Portakabins will provide additional floorspace at the hospital, helping them to keep patients and staff safe for the remainder of the pandemic.

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Chief operating officer Paul Bytheway said: “UHNM has invested in two paediatric modular builds to create more space and accommodate significant changes made to the Emergency Department at Royal Stoke University Hospital due to Covid-19 to help keep our patients and staff safe.”

Planning permission has been granted for the waiting room, but is still pending for the ward building – although it is unlikely to be withheld by Stoke-on-Trent City Council.

The temporary children's ward building at the Royal Stoke
The temporary children's ward building at the Royal Stoke

The application states: "The building is being installed to provide a social distanced clinical ward space. This will allow more space in the new building and will free up space in the existing hospital to minimise the spread of Covid.

"Modular construction has been chosen to for speed of delivery, reduced re-instatement works.

"This application seeks temporary planning approval of two years, when we have hopefully returned to normal practices."

UHNM is currently seeing record numbers of Covid-positive patients, with Stoke-on-Trent currently having the highest infection rate in the West Midlands.

Last week there were 349 patients with coronavirus being treated at UHNM, including 304 at the Royal Stoke, and 39 in critical care.