One of the new rapid assessment, intervention and treatment cubicles
Six additional treatment cubicles have been opened today to treat and care for patients in the Emergency Department at Pilgrim Hospital, Boston.
The cubicles are part of the new rapid assessment, intervention and treatment area designed to care for patients needing urgent care and assessment. They are located close to the ambulance entrance to ensure patients get the urgent care they need as soon as possible. These patients will then be seen by clinicians, assessed and any tests carried out to decide their ongoing care.
Lincolnshire Community and Hospitals NHS Group Chief Executive, Professor Karen Dunderdale, said: “Today marks another significant milestone in the provision of urgent and emergency care at Pilgrim Hospital in Boston. These cubicles will enable us to assess and stabilise some of our sickest patients and identify the onward care they need.
“These might only be six cubicles, but the difference they will make for our patients and the staff caring for them should not be underestimated, especially as we come into the winter months.”
Back in August 2019, the then Prime Minister Boris Johnson visited the hospital and met staff when he announced the provision of £21.3 million funding towards the cost of a new Emergency Department. Additional funding to complete the £47.5 million transformation has come from across the Lincolnshire NHS system.
The first phase to build the new department was opened to patients on Wednesday 7 May 2025. This included:
Eight resuscitation cubicles to care for the sickest patients needing the highest level of emergency care, including one cubicle specifically designed for young patients.
12 majors cubicles for those patients who are seriously ill, but not in immediate life-threatening danger. This included a cubicle dedicated as a safe assessment room for patients with mental health needs.
Ambulance parking outside with direct access into the department.
A temporary area for children to be assessed and treated in, away from the rest of the department.
A relatives’ room which is being used to update families, as well as provide a space for them to spend time with their loved ones who may have passed away in the department.
Staff rooms and offices, as well as a plant room to house all of the pipework, infrastructure and air handling units needed for the first and second phases of the new department.
Since the first phase opened, work has continued at pace to not only complete the rapid assessment, intervention and treatment cubicles, but to also start on the second phase which has seen the old Emergency Department taken back to the steel infrastructure and rebuilt from the ground up.
This will then house the main entrance, waiting room, triage area, Urgent Treatment Centre and dedicated paediatrics area.
Once all of the work has been completed next year, the department will be more than three times the size it was before.
Both phases of the new department have air source heat pumps, are carbon neutral and have been designed with the pledge by the NHS to be the world’s first net zero national health service by 2045.
Professor Dunderdale added: “Now they are open, work will continue on completing the construction work where the old department used to be and then joining both phases together next year.
“We are still working in only half of a department until the next phase is completed. This is no small feat, but with the support of other departments, our amazing emergency department colleagues and our patients we will get there. But please bear with us, as it will be worth it once everything is completed.
“All of this support will enable us to create a state-of-the-art Emergency Department with the environments that our teams deserve to provide the very best care, not only today, but also in the future.”
Pilgrim hospital A&E Matron Philippa Davies and Clinical Services Manager for Urgent and Emergency Care Blanche Lentz in the new rapid assessment, intervention and treatment area within the new Emergency Department at Pilgrim Hospital, Boston
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