Work has begun on a new pathology laboratory at St James’s Hospital in Leeds to serve patients in the city, West Yorkshire, and Harrogate.
The facility will support hospitals across the region to improve diagnostics for patients and help meet the growing regional demand for specialist treatment and care, and provide development opportunities for staff. Leeds-based BAM Construction has begun work on the site at the north end of the hospital campus, and is preparing the ground ready for building the new laboratory. To be part of the West Yorkshire and Harrogate Pathology Network, it is expected to be completed in summer 2023, and to become operational in the autumn.
BAM said: “The start of works on site is a boost for Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust’s wider health improvement plan, which includes the development of a new adults’ hospital, a new home for Leeds Children’s Hospital, and the UK’s largest single-site maternity centre in in one building on the Leeds General Infirmary (LGI) site.
The new pathology laboratory will allow the Trust to incorporate most of its pathology services currently housed in outdated facilities in the Old Medical School at Leeds General Infirmary (LGI), plus some of those delivered from St James’s University Hospital.
The vacated Old Medical School building will form part of a plan to use surplus LGI estate to develop an ‘innovation village’ which could create up to 3,000 new jobs, and deliver up to £11.2 bn in net present value.
Simon Worthington, the Trust’s director of Finance and senior responsible officer for the Building the Leeds Way Programme, said: “Seeing the contractors moving onto the site to start building the new laboratory is a real boost for everyone, and the beginning of exciting times in the development of healthcare for Leeds and the wider region. Pathology teams have continued to do a tremendous job in the fast turnaround of testing during the COVID pandemic while working in outdated facilities.”
Paul Cleminson, Pre-construction director for BAM Construction North East, said the work being carried was ‘among the most advanced in any UK healthcare facility. he said: “It builds upon an excellent relationship with St James’s and the wider Trust based on our previous work together at the i3TMRI/Hybrid Cardiac Theatre scheme, and the backlog maintenance programme across Leeds, and will incorporate the most modern ways of working known to our sector. It also draws on the lessons we’ve learned through delivering the Nightingale Hospital for Yorkshire and the Humber.”
‘Flexible, digital by design, and supporting the delivery of Net Zero Carbon’, the laboratory will aim to be fully mechanically ventilated, with heat recovery and systems to minimise power and re-use heat. It will also incorporate a single, shared Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) for the area, which will mean test requests can be ordered, tracked, and results reported electronically, to clinical services across West Yorkshire and Harrogate.
Pictured (left to right) are: Paul Cleminson and Andy Smithson of BAM; Dame Linda Pollard, Chair of Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, and Gareth Welburn, Design manager for BAM.
