Member Article

Plans for new Royal Liverpool hospital considered this week

Liverpool councillors are set to approve the £400m design project for the new Royal hospital at a planning committee meeting this week.

The application, lodged by construction company Carillion, seeks permission for a state-of-the-art new hospital to include 18 operating theatres, 23 wards and single bedrooms for up to 646 people.

The project is expected to reach ‘financial close’ next January with work on site following shortly after. It will create the equivalent of 750 full-time jobs during the four-year build.

Carillion plans to build the major hospital next to the current hospital, with the project scheduled to open in 2017.

The new Royal will be the largest hospital in the country and one of very few NHS hospitals to provide all single en-suite bedrooms for patients, improving privacy and dignity for patients, helping to reduce infection risks.

A key element of gaining Treasury approval has been to reduce the amount of PFI financing behind the giant healthcare scheme.

The hospital will cost £335m including the new build, landscaping and demolishing the current hospital.

The current Royal will be demolished once services have transferred to the new hospital. Other work will then take place on site, such as landscaping and building the Liverpool BioCampus.

Richard Howson, chief executive, Carillion, said: “We are proud to be working in Liverpool again and we are looking forward to working with staff, patients and the public during construction.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Simon Malia .