A planning application for a new emergency care centre at Foresterhill has been granted by Aberdeen City Council.

The development represents a significant step in the improvement of healthcare facilities in the north east of Scotland.

The building will be on seven floors.

The ground floor will house the main emergency care centre with assessment cubicles, treatment rooms, consulting rooms, X-ray rooms, a seminar room, a reception area and various ancillary offices, and waiting and storage accommodation.

On the first floor there will be various staff offices and rooms, a pharmacy, initial assessment areas, multi-bed rooms, an X-ray room and control room.


There will be a surgical short stay unit and medical short stay unit, both with en-suite single bedrooms, multi-bed rooms, rest rooms, consultants' offices, staff rooms and other ancillary accommodation.

On the third floor there will be a high dependency unit, a hyperbaric chamber and a respiratory ward, single bed and multi-bed rooms and various consultants' and staff rooms and offices.

The fourth floor will feature two generic wards (one with 32 beds and the other with 31 beds) with ancillary staff accommodation.

The fifth floor will have one generic ward (16 beds), a seminar/conference area, an infection unit (26 beds) and ancillary staff rooms.

The sixth floor will have a plant room and there will also be a small sub-basement to house plant.

The building would be of flat roof design and 39 metres tall at its highest point.

The emergency care centre will link to the Royal Aberdeen Children's Hospital.

The centre is to be built immediately to the north of the children's hospital on the site presently occupied by the existing accident and emergency unit and the modular buildings accommodating Wards 9A, 9B, 9C and the Breast Services Clinic.

(GK/JM)