Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust has stalled plans to deliver a new hospital in Berwick-upon-Tweed.
In their latest update, the Trust provides details that the construction company Merit is in serious financial trouble and may go into administration.
“This is a very unfortunate situation and we appreciate that this will be a very difficult time for all involved,” said the Northumbria Healthcare Trust in the statement. “We have robust plans in place to ensure construction work continues to progress both the Berwick Community Hospital and also the Medicines Manufacturing Centre at Seaton Delaval.”
The Trust has invested £35m to deliver the Berwick hospital.
The delivery of the hospital is estimated to support 295 full-time jobs per year during construction and inject more than £17m into the local economy during the build.
The hospital will replace an old infirmary site and offer an upgraded space for staff and patients. The space will accommodate additional services such as audiology, dental, dermatology, ophthalmology and urology.
The GP Well Close Medical Group will also be located in the hospital building to enable easier access to services for patients.
Planning permission was approved in December 2020, and since then the project team moved to the build phase.
The Trust awarded the contract to build the new hospital to off-site construction specialist Merit in February 2021.
Merit’s strategy involves a combined methodology of manufacturing modules and pods off-site in their Cramlington factory and then transporting them to Berwick for installation.
In August 2024, Merit completed the first of the components to be delivered to Berwick’s new community hospital site: two roof PODs, which were lifted by crane onto the top of the hospital building, its permanent home.
A further six PODs were due to be delivered.
In total 712 pre-assembled modules, 52 fully fitted bathrooms PODs and 17 roof PODs were planned to be transported from Merit’s factory in Cramlington to north Northumberland and installed on the roof and within the hospital’s two-storey steel frame over the next five to six months.
That work, along with the work that Merit was appointed to at the Medicines Manufacturing Centre at Seaton Delaval, has been stalled and contractor crews have left the site amid the financial difficulties.
The new Medicines Manufacturing Centre, which will work alongside existing aseptic units across the region’s hospitals, will produce chemotherapy treatments for patients and will serve the North East and North Cumbria.
The facility will also supply a range of injectable medicines, as well as ‘pre-labelled’ medicines to help support local hospital teams as patients are discharged home.
Merit was due to manufacture approximately 87% of the FLEXI POD build offsite at its Cramlington-based smart factory and to complete the job by September 2025.