ONE of England's NHS chiefs has visited the new outpatients health village being built in the Dolphin Centre in Poole.

Mark Cubbon, chief operating officer of NHS England, toured the facility under construction on the second floor Beales.

It is due to open to patients in December.

He was shown around by the chief executive of University Hospitals Dorset, Debbie Fleming.

Mr Cubbon was impressed with the project which is being developed in a matter of weeks using materials from the decommissioned Nightingale hospitals.

He told the Echo: “I was delighted to visit University Hospitals Dorset to see progress on Poole Hospital’s new theatre complex and the new BEACH Building which will open next month, both part of the impressive local vision and investment to improve care and services for patients.”

“I was also very impressed to look around the brand new outpatient assessment clinic that is being developed on the top floor of Beales, as part of Dorset’s Think Big project to help tackle waiting lists and bring scans and tests closer to the community.

"It was great to hear about the difference this will make for patients from the clinicians and others involved, and to see how much of the equipment has been recycled from our Nightingale Hospitals."

Mark Mould UHD chief operating officer and Ashleigh Boreham, the deputy director of design and transformation at Dorset Clinical Commissioning Group were also on the tour.

The new department is based on parallel lanes each dealing with a specific service, ophthalmology, musculoskeletal, breast screening and dermatology.

The assessment clinic is set to treat tens of thousands of people from across Dorset and make inroads into the long NHS waiting lists.

Mr Boreham: “This is all about getting those numbers through because every single number on a waiting list is someone’s life.

"For some it will be lifesaving. For instance there are 22,000 women waiting for breast screening who we need to see.”

At the end of August, UHD alone had 49,906 patients on its waiting lists, of who 3,408 were waiting more than 52 weeks.

Steve Rice is the site manager for the construction firm CFES.

He said the department will be colour-coded to make it easy for patients to find their way to their speciality, with help from a team of volunteers.

Mr Rice said: "This is a temporary facility but we are building it with an eye to the longer term. It could three or four years or maybe even longer."

Similar smaller projects are likely be set up in towns like Dorchester and Weymouth.