The Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, has praised the progress on a new £40 million ‘super development’ for emergency and major trauma services at Manchester Royal Infirmary (MRI).
The Renovation of Emergency Department programme, called Project RED, is a three-year construction programme to enhance the facilities for emergency services across MRI.
The first phase of the scheme has seen the opening of a brand-new, increased capacity resuscitation area, creating brand new facilities for patients who have suffered severe injury or illness.
Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, met staff and visited the new resuscitation area during his visit.
He said: “Manchester Royal Infirmary is a busy hospital serving a large number of people in the city and beyond and well known for its work in complex and specialised treatment. The further development work that is well underway looks really impressive. It has been great to see the investment going into the emergency care, and hearing of how these new state-of-the-art facilities are already benefitting staff and patients.”
Mark Cubbon, Chief Executive of Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, said: “MRI’s emergency department has served us well since it was built in the 1970s but the city’s population and demand on our services have increased significantly since then. Running an emergency department while a rebuild taking place is not easy, and I’m grateful to colleagues for working through the disruption, and patients for bearing with us. We’re at a really exciting time in the development now and were proud to be able to show the Mayor the progress we are making.”
The Mayor saw first-hand of how Phase 2 of Project RED is progressing by touring MRI. The old resuscitation area has been demolished and work has started to extend the majors, minors and triage areas in the Emergency Department, as well as new operating theatres on the second floor of the building.
Project RED, due to be completed in Summer 2026, will create five new state-of-the-art operating theatres, including two new hybrid theatres which are operating rooms that integrate advanced diagnostic imaging, such as CT, MRI, or X-ray, into the surgical suite. This will support the hospital’s role as one of the regional centres for complex and specialist surgeries, including major trauma, transplant, liver and cancer-related operations.
During the visit, staff showed the Mayor how the new resuscitation area, and wider development, had been designed around the needs of patients with input from clinical staff. These views played a significant role in designing the dedicated resuscitation rooms to ensure patient dignity, privacy and noise reduction is maintained, whilst still allowing oversight and observation of critically unwell patients.
