** THIS SERVICE CHANGE IS NOW COMPLETE**

This is a temporary service change (approximately 12-18 weeks) to outpatient Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) and Audiology Services at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital.

Improvement works are taking place at the outpatient Clinics at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital commencing 18^th April 2022 for between 12-18 weeks, meaning services are temporarily affected.

The reason for this temporary change is to upgrade facilities in the current clinics held at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital.  There are many different procedures carried out in the clinic rooms some of which are designated “Aerosol Generating Procedures” (AGPs).     These AGPs carry an increased risk of cross infection, so previously the rooms and equipment required deep cleaning after any procedure. The rooms then needed time to “rest” (for air circulation) before the next patient could be seen/treated. The “rest” times could be up to one hour between patient’s dependent on the environment of the rooms. The impact of this is sometimes patients had to wait a considerable amount of time within clinic to see a clinician, due to room availability.

The improvement works to the ENT, and Audiology clinics at RSH will improve the clinical environment and support patient care.  The works will involve the installation of air handling units and associated estates enabling work to improve the clean air exchange rates within the Clinic Rooms.  Once this estates work is carried out there will be a decrease in the rest time between patients, the length of appointment times and risk of rescheduling, and most importantly will reduce the risk of infection.  The improvement work will take place over the next 12-18 weeks

For the duration of the improvement works the following arrangements have been put in place:

• For Audiology patients
  • 3 clinic rooms in the Copthorne Building, RSH
  • increase in community locations (across North, South and Central Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin, Powys)
  • Clinics at PRH

• For ENT patients, during this time patients will be seen in clinic at:
  • • RSH within Clinic 7
    • Additional clinic capacity will be provided at PRH
    • Where appropriate telephone consultations will be provided

ENT/Audiology Presentation