The official start of work on the Dumfries and Galloway acute hospital project got underway this week, with Health Secretary, Shona Robison, cutting the first sod at a ground-breaking ceremony.
Laing O’Rourke is building the new hospital as part of the High Wood Health consortium with Aberdeen UK Infrastructure Partners, a fund managed by Aberdeen Asset Management.
The new £200m facility, designed by architects Ryder Architecture and NBBJ, is due to open in 2017 and will have 344 single rooms, an emergency care centre, and a new combined theatre complex.
Robison said: “I’m delighted to be here today to mark the beginning of work on the new Dumfries Hospital. This is an exciting and important day for all those people involved in the project who are finally seeing their hard work come to fruition.
“These new facilities will transform healthcare in the Dumfries region, providing patients with the highest-quality facilities in their local area. The Scottish Government is investing over £2 billion in Scotland’s health infrastructure over four years, to 2015-16, with this development being one of many that demonstrates its commitment to continually improving health services.”
The construction and delivery of the new hospital will also bring a range of community benefits to the region, including the creation of 150 new jobs, 36 apprenticeships, and opportunities for small and medium enterprises to tender.
Bill Haughey of High Wood Health said: “With the works now progressing, not only will the site on which we stand soon begin to transform, but we can also begin to drive the economic and educational benefits we’ve pledged to create through the construction programme and beyond. This is a very exciting project.”
The project is one of five healthcare schemes being secured under the Scottish Government’s Non Profit Distributing (NPD) model. Construction by Laing O’Rourke started in March 2015 and the estates aspects of the facility will be managed by Serco when it becomes operational in 2017.