Key milestone for the redevelopment of St Marys Hospital
Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust has formally submitted its strategic outline case for the redevelopment of St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington. It represents the first stage of the approval process within the New Hospital Programme. St Mary’s – together with the Trust’s Charing Cross and Hammersmith hospitals – are included in the 40 new hospitals the government has committed to build by 2030 as part of the government’s wider Health Infrastructure Plan.
The strategic outline case (SOC) focuses on St Mary’s role as a leading provider of clinical care, education and research and, through its major trauma centre in particular, a key part of the health system for north west London and the capital as a whole. It highlights that the hospital’s aging estate is in rapid decline, creating a real risk of having to make service closures within the next 6-9 years.
The SOC concludes that the existing Paddington site is the only viable location for the redevelopment, especially given St Mary’s role as a major trauma centre and the needs of its local population who live in some of the most deprived boroughs in the UK. It demonstrates the need for an increase in capacity to future proof acute care provision in London, with modelling - based on Greater London Authority population growth projections, changing demand, new ways of working and closer collaboration with partners across our integrated care system - showing a requirement for a total of 840 beds across the new St Mary’s.
The Trust’s preferred option for redevelopment is to invest in new, user-centred clinical facilities across three main hospital buildings and, on land that would then be freed up, develop a clinical life sciences cluster in partnership with industry and research. There would be dedicated research, education and innovation spaces within the hospital buildings, and links to a new centre for clinical infection that brings together specialist expertise in infectious disease, research and education (including the Alexander Fleming Laboratory Museum).
The preferred option is expected to cost £1.2-1.7 billion net, once receipts from the sale of surplus land are taken into account.
The SOC argues that doing nothing is not an option given the very high risk of estates failure and calculates that just addressing backlog maintenance in our existing buildings through repairs and basic refurbishment would cost at least £1 billion. But this would mean no increase in capacity, no additional benefits in terms of improved layout and operational performance and no opportunity to release surplus land and bring in land receipts.
Professor Tim Orchard, chief executive of Imperial College Healthcare Trust, said: “The Trust has the biggest backlog maintenance liability of any NHS organisation and, as our staff and patients are very aware, the state of our facilities, with many pre-dating the NHS itself, makes it increasingly difficult to provide high quality care.
“We believe we have made the strongest of cases for redeveloping St Mary’s hospital to ensure we can continue our legacy of research, innovation, safe and high-quality care. While we await approval of our SOC, we are working up detailed options for phasing the redevelopment to explore whether we can accelerate key aspects of delivery and benefit realisation and spread the costs. We look forward to progressing the next phase of the St Mary’s redevelopment as quickly as possible which will include the creation of a more detailed outline business case, with greater opportunities for our staff, patients and stakeholders to get fully involved.”
The full SOC will be published at a later date – in the interim, a summary briefing has been published and is available.
Find out more about the redevelopment here.
