15 new NHS hospital developments worth more than £4 billion

Health Secretary John Reid has given the go ahead for 15 new NHS hospital developments worth more than £4 billion.

The announcement will bring investment in new NHS hospitals to more than £16 billion since 1997. The NHS is already well on course to meet the NHS Plan target of 100 new hospital schemes open to patients by 2010. More than 40 are already built and operational.

These new hospital developments announced today will be funded largely through the Private Finance Initiative (PFI). It will now be for local health organisations to progress these schemes to the next stages of development.

The new developments include plans for:

• New mental health facilities for Leicestershire, Merseyside, and Teesside
• A new cardiac research institute and upgraded cardiac wing for Great Ormond Street Hospital
• Modern new buildings for Papworth Hospital's world class cardiothoracic services

John Reid said:

“The NHS is in the middle of the biggest hospital building programme in its history. After years of under-investment, the infrastructure of the NHS is at last being modernised and made fit for the 21st Century.

“The new hospital plans given the green light today represent the type of bright, modern, clean environments that all NHS patients should experience during their treatment. I look forward to seeing further progress on these schemes, and all of the other hospital building projects that are underway, and particularly to seeing the benefits they will bring to their local communities.

“I am delighted to receive such good quality proposals and I will be encouraging local health organisations to progress these rapidly through the next important stages of their development.”

The 15 new hospital developments are:

• Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire (£880m) – A major acute service reconfiguration in the Hertfordshire area, including plans for redevelopment and expansion at Watford and a new hospital at Hatfield, incorporating a new cancer centre for Bedfordshire & Hertfordshire.
• North Bristol and South Gloucestershire (£310m) – Options include the relocation of specialist acute services onto a single site in North Bristol / South Gloucestershire, complemented by a network of new community facilities and community hospitals.
• Papworth Hospital NHS Trust (£148m) - World class cardiothoracic services in new state-of-the-art buildings for Papworth Hospital. Options include redeveloping the existing Papworth site or co-locating with Addenbrookes on the “Cambridge Biomedical Campus.”
• Sandwell and West Birmingham Acute Trust (£591m) - New acute sector facilities including development of community based alternatives to hospital care.
• Maternity and Childrens Hospital in Leeds (£204m) - Creation of a new Childrens and Maternity hospital in Leeds. This development is key to the Trust’s strategy of locating acute services onto a single main hospital site.
• Hillingdon Hospital redevelopment (£271m) - Redevelopment of the Hillingdon Hospital site in Northwest London and the total replacement of out-dated accommodation with a modern new building.
• Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital Stanmore redevelopment (£121m) - Replacement of the hospitals older buildings with modern purpose-built facilities and an increase in capacity.
• Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children redevelopment (£225m) - The proposal is for a second phase of the redevelopment of the Great Ormond Street site, which will create a new in-patient block, upgrade the cardiac wing, expand imaging capacity and create a new cardiac research institute. This is not a PFI scheme – it will be funded with £75m in public capital and the rest through charitable donations.
• Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust (£52m) - Re-provision of mental health services contained in the Brandon Unit (on the Leicester General Hospital site).
• Tees and North East Yorkshire NHS Trust (£73m) - The preferred option is for the re-development of a comprehensive range of services on the St Lukes site in Middlesbrough and will allow the relocation of services in Stockton and Hartlepool from North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Trust sites.
• Taunton Surgical Centre (£75m) - A new surgical centre at the heart of the hospital and will accommodate wards, theatres, ITU and HDU facilities. This development will involve the replacement 1940s accommodation and will increase bed numbers and theatre capacity.
• Southend Hospital redevelopment (£100m) - Re-development of the Southend Hospital site to ensure sufficient capacity is available to deliver efficient high dependency, elective and emergency care services for the people of South East Essex. The scheme will be complemented by the parallel development of satellite and community services and an Independent Sector Treatment Centre (ISTC) to provide additional capacity for outpatients and simple surgical procedures.
• North Mersey Future Healthcare Project (£1008m) - The North Mersey Future Healthcare Project involves the redevelopment of facilities at the Royal Liverpool Children’s Hospital incorporating the concept of a ‘Children’s Health Park, the redevelopment of the Royal Liverpool University Hospital, an elective care centre and additional ward facilities at University Hospital Aintree and the further and improved provision of facilities for people with mental health problems through a range of community mental health resources and the establishment of a local Psychiatry Intensive Care Unit by mental health Trust, Mersey Care.
• South of Tyne and Wearside (£50m) - The scheme will provide mental health facilities at Cherry Knowle Hospital in Ryehope, Sunderland, and includes replacement of in-patient facilities for adult and older persons and replacement of an older persons’ day hospital.
• Northwick Park and St Marks (£305m) - The project will redevelop the Northwick Park and St Marks site to create a state-of the art 600 bed acute hospital, designed around a new service model that is based on a series of 'super-teams' that combine both hospital and primary care skills with the ability to provide readily accessible clinical opinions and diagnoses.