New £400million Royal Liverpool Hospital is approved

Mar 19 2008 by Laura Sharpe, Liverpool Daily Post

royal liverpool hospital

A £400m world-class hospital which will meet Merseyside’s future healthcare needs won approval yesterday.

The city’s planning committee approved outline plans to replace the 1970s Royal Liverpool Hospital building with a state-of-the-art hospital. It will involve building a new hospital on the south-east corner of the city centre site, before the existing buildings are demolished.

Helen Jackson, for the NHS Trust, said the current building, with a congested entrance, had reached the end of its useful life 30 years after opening.

She said the site no longer met the requirements of patients and demolition rather than refurbishment was the cheaper, faster alternative.

“We want to create a world-class sustainable hospital that is also a landmark building for Liverpool.

“We need a modern building fit for the long term and able to adapt in a way the current building simply cannot.” Technical experts say the hospital’s electrical, heating and ventilation systems are likely to start failing in the next few years.

But plans to make the Royal the centre for all emergency and specialist care, with Broadgreen used for assessment and rehabilitation, met with one objection.

Maggie Andrews, chairman of the patient and public involvement forum for the Royal and Broadgreen hospitals, criticised plans for cutting the number of available beds from 853 to 655.

In response, Dr Samir Rihani, non-executive director of Liverpool Primary Care Trust, said the health service was undergoing massive changes.

He said: “The people of Liverpool are saying to us, they don’t want to be in hospital, they want to be out as soon as possible.

“We don’t believe we need more than 650 beds with the rise in community care services and an increase in community GPs, matrons and nurses.”

The key details of the plan and design will be thrashed out in the future but the trust hopes to put the project out to PFI bidders at the end of this year.

A council report to the committee says the projected start date is January 2011.

After the meeting, Tony Bell, chief executive at the Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospital NHS Trust, said: “The decision brings our vision of transforming the Royal a step closer to reality. Ultimately a new hospital would provide us with the ability to create an excellent, modern environment for clinical care and deliver a vastly improved patient experience.”

Councillor Warren Bradley, leader of Liverpool Council, added: “This decision will bring massive benefits to the health and well-being of future generations of Liverpool people.”

laurasharpe@dailypost.co.uk