Changing the face of London’s healthcare

HEJ editor, Jonathan Baillie, discussed with New Hospitals Programme director, Matthew Tulley, the challenges of overseeing the design, planning, and construction, of the ‘new’ Royal London as part of a wider £1 billion PFI project to transform and modernise facilities at both the Barts and the Royal London sites, and of smoothly moving over 3,000 staff and patients from old to new accommodation.

The re-location of 110 wards and departments from ‘outdated, illconfigured facilities’ at the original Royal London Hospital, some dating back to the 18th century, into new, ‘state-of-theart’ premises, began last December, and was duly completed, on schedule, by late February. A meticulously planned 12-week re-location programme requiring input from all the major clinical disciplines, and the considerable experience in such large-scale moves of removals company, Harrow Green, saw over 3,000 staff and patients successfully transferred. The ‘new’ Royal London’s medical and clinical facilities, which replace those previously housed in a number of ‘outdated’ buildings that, in some cases, had stood for over 250 years, are contained within a striking new 21st-century complex comprising one glass-clad 17-storey, one 16-storey tower, and one 10-storey tower, adjoining eachother. The imposing structure provides a marked contrast to the ageing, if undoubtedly architecturally interesting buildings, a number built in the 1750s, which formed the original hospital.

Sense of excitement