Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust has been given an update on the next steps of its St Mary’s Hospital projects following the review of the New Hospital Programme.
All of the hospital redevelopments in Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust were placed in wave 3 of the New Hospital Programme.
The New Hospital Programme funding for construction on these projects is not due to be released until 2035 at the earliest.
A first tranche of £19.4 million is due to be released this month
However, the planning and design phase for St Mary’s Hospital has been confirmed to continue.
This phase of work is intended to conclude with planning consent for a new hospital within a redeveloped life sciences campus in 2027/28.
A first tranche of £19.4 million is due to be released this month from what is anticipated to be a total of around £50 million to complete this phase.
The works
St Mary’s is the hospital in most urgent need of redevelopment within Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, with a growing number of estate failures and increasing impact, as well as bed occupancy consistently at 100%.
Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust spends £10 million a year just on essential repairs, according to the Trust.
St Mary’s is the hospital in most urgent need of redevelopment within Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust
Some services are run from facilities built in 1845 and over half the estate pre-dates the NHS.
Chief Executive of Imperial College Healthcare, Professor Tim Orchard, said: “At the same time as progressing design and planning we will be stepping up work with partners to develop options for reducing the amount of New Hospital Programme funding required for construction, aiming to be able to bring forward the start date.
“This will include setting up a taskforce with Westminster City Council and MPs representing Westminster wards focused on identifying additional funding options for St Mary’s.
“We will also be helping to expand Imperial College London and Hammersmith and Fulham Council's Upstream London industrial strategy that is curating the benefits of life science developments involving all our hospitals – St Mary’s, Charing Cross, Hammersmith, Queen Charlotte’s and Chelsea and the Western Eye.”
The redevelopment will involve building a new, 800-840 bed hospital with integrated research facilities
As the busiest of London’s four major trauma centres, the consequences for the capital’s wider healthcare system of having to close or move services due to further building failures at St Mary’s are enormous, according to the Trust.
The redevelopment will involve building a new, 800-840 bed hospital with integrated research facilities in the east of the St Mary’s estate.
It will be primarily one, tall building on a smaller footprint than the current facilities which are spread across the ten-acre site.
Also, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust intends for the land that is surplus to requirements to be redeveloped to support the expansion of Paddington Life Sciences.