The new purpose-built may eventually have capacity for 36 beds [Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust]Construction on a new hospital department, which a trust says will care for some of its "sickest patients", has begun. The Department of Critical Care at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital will initially provide 24 critical care beds and is expected to treat more than 1,500 patients a year. It will replace the hospital's existing critical care unit and include specialist isolation rooms, upgraded facilities for families and improved staff wellbeing spaces. Advertisement AdvertisementGloucestershire Hospitals NHS Trust said the expansion will support its wider hospital improvement programme, including major fire safety works at the Tower Block. "Critical care services will continue to operate across both Gloucestershire Royal and Cheltenham General hospitals during the transition," the trust said.