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A brand-new acute kidney care unit is coming to Basildon Hospital – and will provide state of the art renal facilities for people with kidney problems across south Essex.

The expansion means more people can be treated in purpose-built facilities and increased capacity, the unit will improve patient flow and reduce waiting times. The new assessment rooms will also help prevent unnecessary hospital admissions by identifying urgent needs early.

Built on the hospital site, the state-of-the-art unit will provide 22 inpatient beds with four bed bays, a single room and a specialist bariatric room) six outpatient treatment spaces, and two dedicated procedure rooms for kidney biopsies and line insertions.

The new space will replace services currently provided on Elizabeth Fry ward and will provide more spaces for people presenting to the emergency department with kidney problems, speeding up access to urgent care.

Dr Gowrie Balasubramaniam, Renal Consultant at the Trust, said: “This is an exciting step forward for people with kidney disease and being able to move quickly to deliver is important. The new unit will be transformative, enabling us to deliver prompt, specialist care in a calm, modern environment, with space and resources we've needed for a long time.”

The unit will support early specialist input, reduce readmissions, and shorten length of stay. It also means care can be better tailored to individual needs – especially for those requiring longer inpatient stays or specialist support, such as bariatric care.

The move marks a huge improvement on current facilities and puts kidney services on a strong footing for the future.

The unit is due to welcome its first patients as soon as June 2026, with a phased transfer from Elizabeth Fry ward. Following this, Elizabeth Fry ward will then be refurbished to support more medical care beds for winter and space to move patients out of older wards, helping the Trust to make much needed improvements to other wards at the hospital.