Health investment plan receives the green light
Categories: 2007 Media Releases
The dream of a new, state-of-the-art acute hospital, new integrated care centre and a new mental health hospital being built in Peterborough will now definitely become a reality after the project gained all necessary government approvals and reached financial close.
Following a design, planning and approval process that has spanned four years, contracts were formally agreed and finalised by Peterborough and Stamford Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Peterborough Primary Care Trust, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Mental Health Partnership Trust and Progress Health, on 29 June.
Contracts were able to be signed following formal approval of the scheme by government ministers in the Department of Health and the Treasury earlier this month.
Construction will now begin in July on the £335 million project that will see a new 612-bed acute hospital built on the Edith Cavell Hospital site. It will include an emergency care centre, a high-tech diagnostics unit, women and children’s unit, cancer unit, specialist rehabilitation unit, renal dialysis and a multi-disciplinary training centre. It will open in late 2010.
A new 102-bed mental health unit on the site is due to open in late 2008. It will offer patients state-of-the-art purpose built accommodation with single en-suite bedrooms. It will include adult acute psychiatric wards, a psychiatric intensive care unit, older people's mental health unit and a specialist service for people with learning disabilities. The accommodation includes restaurant style dining facilities for patients, staff and visitors, a fitness and recreational centre and landscaped gardens.
The integrated care centre, run by Peterborough Primary Care Trust, will be built on the site of the Fenland Wing at Peterborough District Hospital and will include 34 specialist rehabilitation beds, a pharmacy, outpatient diagnostic and treatment centre, general rehabilitation services and children’s care centre. It will open in 2009.
The project will allow new patient services in modern facilities and will offer a ‘Whole Healthcare’ approach allowing moves in healthcare provision from acute hospital services to community care. It will also deliver better integration of mental health services.
St. Clair Armitage, Project Director, said: “We are absolutely delighted to have reached this stage of the project. The partner trusts and our colleagues within Progress Health have been committed to the project for many years. In that time we have undertaken an incredible amount of work and had to negotiate some significant hurdles to make sure the people of Greater Peterborough are provided with new healthcare facilities for the 21st Century.”
Nik Patten, Chief Executive of Peterborough and Stamford Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: “It is an incredible achievement to have finally received all the necessary approvals and to have signed contracts on the biggest healthcare project the city has ever seen. It has taken 14 years and three attempts to finally reach this stage, but we have done it, and the reward for the people of Greater Peterborough will be excellent patient services delivered in superb healthcare buildings.”
Angela Bailey, Chief Executive, Peterborough Primary Care Trust, said: “This is such an exciting time for us and for the people of Peterborough. 14 years ago I sat on the first project board meeting looking at investing in the future health care for the people of Peterborough, and I am delighted that we have finally overcome our last hurdle. We can now look forward to seeing these fabulous, 21st Century facilities start to take shape over the coming weeks as our vision becomes a reality.”
Karen Bell, Chief Executive, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Mental Health Partnership Trust, said: "We are very excited at the prospect of this new build. It will help us to give patients excellent care by replacing our current beds which are not really fit for the provision of modern health care and geographically very spread out.”
St Clair Armitage added: “In line with the wide public consultation we held to form this project, we will seek to keep residents and the wider community up to date with the on-going progress of the project during the construction phase.
“Obviously we and Progress Health want to keep disruption to an absolute minimum but we are undertaking three large-scale building developments. There may be times, during the next three years, when vehicular access to our hospital sites will be restricted to some degree or cars diverted to different parking zones for example. We will publicise fully such requirements through the local media, via the Trust website and within our hospitals. I am sure people will understand these temporary measures are needed so we can open three fantastic new healthcare buildings in 2008, 2009 and 2010.”
Ends
Note to Editors:
1. Progress Health is a PFI consortium made up of Macquarie Bank and Multiplex. It was selected as competition winner in March 2005.
2. The project team has also worked with the government’s design watchdog, CABE, the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment. CABE assigned one of its regional enabling team members to advise on the plans.
