Mayor of Barnet, Councillor Tony Vourou, and MPs, Catherine West, and Dan Tomlinson, officially opened Barnet Hospital’s new urgent treatment centre (UTC).

They congratulated staff on achieving this significant milestone and thanked them for their hard work and dedication. The Mayor of Barnet said: "These centres are really important for our community - thank you to you and your teams for everything that you do."

The new space helps ensure patients are cared for in the right place at the right time. Over 8,000 patients have walked through our doors since we opened in November 2024 and the new UTC is already delivering a better experience for our patients. In January, our emergency department was the eighth best performing in the country for the number of patients discharged, admitted or transferred within four hours.

Improvements to our UTC completed the first phase of the hospital’s urgent and emergency care redevelopment. Patients who walk into the department are triaged and if needed can be transferred to our emergency department. The facility has a new large dedicated waiting area, paediatric waiting room, two GP rooms and three emergency nurse practitioner rooms.

Deborah Sanders, chief executive of Barnet Hospital, said: "Our staff are amazing and they should be very proud of what they have achieved.

"Our new UTC is really making a difference to patient experience and is a much better environment for our staff to work in. We have more to do to make things even better for the communities we serve but this is a significant step in our journey.

"Thank you to the Mayor of Barnet, Catherine West and Dan Tomlinson for joining us to mark this moment."