SUPERHOSPITAL

Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
 

The new hospital, which is being built at the Derby City General Hospital site, is now set to be 160,000 square metres in size, nearly 20,000 square metres more than in the plan submitted to Derby City Council last year. The extra space has been incorporated in the design by utilising more space on the fifth floor as well as increasing the accommodation on the underground levels. The layout of the hospital has only been adjusted slightly, with the main change concerning the Kings Treatment Centre, an outpatient department, which is significantly larger than before.

The larger hospital will also accommodate a multi-faith centre and will allow for future growth of hospital services, including medical advancements. Janet Moore, of Jackson Avenue, who is the secretary of the residents' liaison group set up to monitor the hospital's development, said she feared that the size increase would mean more patients at the hospital. "I feel it's dreadful, to be honest," she said. "They're already predicting 687,000 patient visits per year by 2008. Does that mean they're increasing the facilities so even more people come?"

And Derby city councillor Lucy Care, who lives on Kings Drive and is cabinet member for planning, transportation and the environment, said, "If the hospital is going to be larger and, as a result, there are more people coming and going, then one thing we need to look at is the travel implications." Brian Ibell, assistant chief executive of Southern Derbyshire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, which will run the hospital, said that the increase in size would not mean more patients but would create improved facilities for patients. "Patients using the hospital should really be able to see the added benefits that these latest improvements will bring", said Mr Ibell.

He said that the larger development also reflected the need to provide additional resources to support the new medical school, which will train 90 doctors each year. The disclosure about the size comes just weeks after the disclosure that the superhospital would cost taxpayers about £1.2bn. Dr Simon Elliott, consultant radiologist at the trust's imaging departments, said that he was pleased that space was being provided for future medical advances. "If we don't plan for it now and build a hospital without the space, it would be incredibly difficult to put it in afterwards and that would be a major disadvantage to patients in Derby," he said.

The contract to build the £333m project has been signed and the multi-million pound deal between Southern Derbyshire Acute Hospitals Trust and Skanska Innisfree, the private consortium which will build and maintain the hospital, assures the project will now be completed as planned by 2008. And with the deal now being finalised, more details including the entire cost of the superhospital project and the facilities which will be on offer have now emerged. For the first time, it has been revealed that the total cost of the project, which will centralise hospital service onto the Derby City General Hospital site, will be £1.56bn.

The scheme will see the Derbyshire Royal Infirmary turned into a community hospital. The developer has raised the initial capital cost of £333m for the actual building of the superhospital, which has risen from £53m when the project was first proposed in August, 1997, through the Stock Market. But as the consortium will maintain the building and supply services such as catering, cleaning and portering, over a 40-year period the total cost of the project is over £1.5bn. The trust will pay the total cost back to the developers over a 40-year period at an annual cost of £39m.

This is an extra £12m a year from what the Trust currently pays and this has been pledged by Southern Derbyshire's five primary care trusts, who fund hospital services via the Government. In return, Derby will boast the largest PFI hospital in the country in floor space, covering 155,000 square metres, which is the equivalent of 40 football pitches. It will be substantially bigger than both the DRI and City Hospital to cope with the 687,000 expected patient visits every year, an increase of 87,000. There will be a total of 7,500 rooms with 1,159 beds - which is 50 more than there are now - and an additional nine operating theatres, taking the total to 35, as well as 9,000 new pieces of equipment.

The new medical school, which is due to open later this month, will also make the hospital the biggest medical teaching facility in the region. Hospital managers believe that these additional facilities will not only improve healthcare across Southern Derbyshire, but also reduce waiting times for operations. Trust chief executive Julie Acred said, "This is great news for our staff, our patients and the community we served. The development will bring extensive benefits to the population of Southern Derbyshire, not only from a patient perspective, but also in terms of increasing the number of jobs locally and contributing positively towards the local economy."

Dr Kathy McLean, medical director at the trust, said the reason the cost had increased over the years was because more facilities had been added. She said, "The project has grown since we started out designing it and, therefore, the costs have increased. We have not compromised on clinical space and, therefore, you have to pay for it." Building the new hospital on an existing site has taken complex planning. To enable work to begin on phase one of the project, which will see half of the new building and the Kings Treatment Centre constructed, patients and buildings will have to move.

The urology department is the first unit to be transferred as part of the redevelopment of the Derby City General Hospital site. Health bosses have said the new hospital, which will have 35 operating theatres, will cut waiting times and allow more patients to be treated. All facilities from Derbyshire Royal Infirmary (DRI) will be transferred to the new building by the end of 2008.

Part of the DRI's London Road site will be sold off and other parts may be used for community health facilities. The scheme has been funded by the private sector, with the NHS leasing the facility for 35 years and builders have been working on the project for nearly two years. (Source: BBC News, Mar/06)