Hillingdon Hospital has been awarded £12.3m to redesign emergency care and develop a new urgent care centre.

The funding is part of a £330m Department of Health allocation across England and was the second largest successful bid awarded to London trusts.

The aim of the project in Hillingdon is to redesign emergency care pathways to reflect best practice for increasing primary care and reducing admission and length of stay in hospital, as well as developing a new urgent care centre making it the biggest development on the site for 40 years.

The redevelopment, due to be completed by the end of 2014, will also see improvements to A&E, the paediatric emergency department, acute medical admission unit and endoscopy unit.

Dr Richard Grocott-Mason, the trust’s Joint Medical Director, said: “The guiding principle behind our plans is to ensure that patients can access the right service at the right time.

“This redevelopment will improve the care we can offer to patients and help to shorten the time that they spend in hospital.

“It will also strengthen the trust’s position as a 'fixed point' for acute care as identified by the North West London 'Shaping a Healthier Future' programme.”

Earlier this week, Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust - the body responsible for running Hilligndon Hospital - was told it must improve, following a Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection in October last year.