The Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has applied to Gloucester City Council for permission to build a new facility to house a Department of Critical Care (DCC) Unit, after identifying a need for more accommodation for patients. The trust says the current DCC, located in a tower block next to the proposed site of the new building, provides 19 beds and no longer has the capacity to meet existing clinical demand, or support projected growth of three per cent each year. The trust says of the tower block works: 'This urgent programme will take four years and will involve each ward including the DCC being decanted for six months, meaning the new build DCC unit needs to be operational as soon as possible'.