Tens of thousands of people living in the West Midlands and the North West are set to benefit from a £1 billion redevelopment of NHS hospitals in Birmingham and St Helens.
An announcement was recently made that approval had been given for University Hospitals Birmingham Foundation NHS Trust and St Helens and Knowsley Hospitals NHS Trust to proceed with new Private Finance Initiative schemes.
A new acute hospital and mental health facilities will open to patients under the Birmingham scheme. The £690 million scheme will provide 1,231 beds as well as an A&E department, specialist burns and transplant wards, a decontamination suite, and operating theatres.
The £338 million St Helens scheme will involve the redevelopment of St Helens and Whiston hospitals, including a new diagnostic treatment centre at St Helens and a new 963-bed general hospital delivering a full range of acute services at Whiston. The new facilities will replace outdated ones at Whiston Hospital – currently patients have to be moved around the site between buildings.
Development of the site for the new Birmingham hospital has already started under an advanced works agreement and work is beginning on the St Helens’ sites. The first new facilities are expected to open to patients at St Helens in late 2008 and Birmingham in early 2010, with final work expected to be completed at Birmingham in late 2012.
The two new hospital schemes are the latest in a wave of new NHS facilities to take key steps forward. The £1 billion Barts and the Royal London PFI scheme – the largest ever – was approved in March, and the £67 million PFI scheme for a new oncology centre in Hull had contracts signed at a similar time.
Contracts were also signed for the Ipswich Garrett Anderson PFI scheme – a £32 million extension to the Ipswich hospital, and work has already started on site.
