YEOVIL NEWS: Hospital traffic to leave site onto Kingston

PATIENTS and visitors to Yeovil District Hospital travelling by car could - in the future – leave the site by directly driving out onto the busy Kingston dual-carriageway as part of a multi-million pound masterplan for the hospital site.

The hospital’s long-term vision for its development between now and 2028 includes a whole raft of exciting projects with a key part being to make car parking and traffic movements at the site far easier for all hospital-users.

Yeovil District Hospital last week held its annual meeting where people were able to hear about hospital performance and the masterplan development.

PHOTO - TOP: An artist's impression of the planned pedestrian-priority area of Higher Kingston outside the main Yeovil District Hospital building with the envisaged multi-storey car park on the right.

PHOTO - RIGHT: The plan is to turn the main entrance to Yeovil District Hospital into a "welcome centre." 

The medical staff accommodation at Cheverton House directly opposite the hospital has already been demolished to create a temporary car park which will eventually make-way for a multi-storey car park with possibly as many as five decks and creating 650 spaces.

Masterplan consultant Mark Rose said: “Everyone is aware of the parking issue for visitors and patients to the hospital.”

He said that the stretch of Higher Kingston in front of the hospital from its junction with Roping Road would become one-way with a planned exit onto the Kingston dual-carriageway.

He explained that the entrance and exit to the multi-storey car park would be at either end to mean that the area directly in front of the main hospital entrance would become virtually traffic free and instead be a pedestrian-priority area.

“We want to improve the parking issue and the whole arrival process for patients and visitors.

“We want to make the front of the hospital an attractive useful space and a safer environment,” he said. “The arrival plaza will be the glue that ties the car park together with the hospital. It can be dressed quite nicely and not be a concrete monstrosity.”

It would mean cars entering the multi-storey car park at the Roping Road end of Higher Kingston, leaving at the other end and then out onto the main Kingston dual-carriageway – an idea which, apparently, has already been given support from the highways authority at Somerset County Council.

The existing hospital car park will – in the future – be re-developed into an attractive-looking health and social care campus.

This will possibly include a GP unit, health park with out-patient clinics, therapy and day services, education facilities and patient and visitor accommodation.

But Mr Rose said: “The health and social care campus is a much more longer-term project, but hopefully in 14-15 years time it will all come to fruition.”

He said the main entrance to the hospital would become a “welcome centre” rather than the existing “plethora of entrances and reception desks.”

Hospital chairman Peter Wyman said: “This masterplan will enable us to do so much and improve things for patients, staff and visitors. It is a fantastic.”

PHOTO - ABOVE: The envisaged multi-storey car park can be seen at the top of site layout, while it would be one-way for traffic going from east to west along Higher Kingston from the junction with Roping Road and you can see the exit access onto the Kingston dual-carriageway on the left. The existing hospital car park is to the right of the site, but that will - eventually - become home to a health and social care campus.

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