Ageing estates have eye-watering maintenance backlogs, estimated at £157m for the Royal Preston and the £88m for the Royal Lancaster
NHS bosses in Lancashire and South Cumbria are set to ask the government for the cash to build entirely new hospitals to replace both the Royal Preston and Royal Lancaster Infirmary.
However, the region will make a pitch for what the programme director for the project, Rebecca Malin, describes as “state of the art” replacements for the two existing hospitals, whose ageing estates have eye-watering maintenance backlogs, estimated at £157m for the Royal Preston and the £88m for the Royal Lancaster.
Any decision to pursue the preferred option of building two brand new hospitals – which would require approval from the individual trusts that run them in their current form – would be subject to a formal public consultation, because it would constitute a major change in NHS services. “The preferred option allows us to generate that absolutely state-of-the-art new building where we can align our services and how they are placed together and interact in order to get [the] most efficient flow for patients and staff.
“And, yes, people are attracted by new facilities, but we then want to retain them – so [we have to consider] how we enable this to truly put us on the map as centres of excellence, so that staff want to come and live in our region,” Ms Malin explains. But the LDRS understands that the national New Hospitals Programme team has already been made aware of the preference for the replacements of both the Royal Preston and Royal Lancaster Infirmary rather than rebuilds.
Almost two years ago, the government announced that £3.7bn would be made available during the current spending review period from 2022/23 to 2024/25. Pressed as to whether she thought it was realistic to push for two brand new facilities in such close proximity to each other, she said she was “optimistic”.
However, Rebecca Malin is keen for residents not only to continue to have their say now that the preferred option is in the public domain – which they can do via the Lancashire and South Cumbria New Hospitals Programme website – but also to “get behind” the attempt to deliver the kind of new facilities that the public have indicated that they want.
At Lancaster, a partial rebuild would similarly stymie the desire for en-suite facilities, while also limiting the opportunities to make improvements to services and the quality of the environment in future. WHERE DO YOU BUILD A NEW HOSPITAL? New sites could still be added to the – as yet unpublished – list of possible plots to build new hospitals in Preston and Lancaster.
“All the while, we will keep narrowing [the options] down – then, when we’ve got it down to a shorter list, [we will] talk to our population about it. I want to do that travel and transport analysis first, because it is so important how people travel to our hospital sites from all of our communities.”
NHS bosses say that such investment is needed because of its geographically remote location, its proximity to some of the UK’s major strategic national assets and the need to meet NHS environmental goals.
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