PFI PROGRESS - EXPANDING SERVICES FOR LOCAL COMMUNITIES

4 Jul 2002 02:01 PM

A £2.4 billion package of major public/private hospital building schemes which will bring over 1,500 more beds and more than 4,500 extra staff into the NHS took a major step forward today.

Health Minister John Hutton gave 13 trusts the go-ahead today to issue tenders for companies to build and provide services to the new hospital buildings under the Private Finance Initiative (PFI). They will all go to the market over the next six months - a key milestone in delivering the 29 new hospital schemes announced in February 2001.

This is the next step in the largest building programme in the history of the NHS, which will see over 100 new hospital schemes opened by 2010, delivering much-needed local healthcare improvements.

Since May 1997 13 major hospital schemes have already opened, 11 of which have been delivered under the PFI; a further 15 are under construction, 13 under the PFI.

Announcing the schemes, Health Minister John Hutton said:

"We want to expand capacity in the NHS. We want to see more doctors, more nurses, more beds and more hospitals. To achieve this we must look beyond traditional sources of funding. We must not let traditional ideological barriers stand in the way of progress.

"PFI has its critics. But the facts speak for themselves. It is enabling us to bring much-needed extra capacity and services to some of those communities who need them most. Today's announcement illustrates this - over 1,500 more beds and 4,500 more staff. This destroys the myth that PFI means fewer beds. And it means one thing; better care for patients.

"PFI schemes enable us to plan for the future and to deliver innovative new services that make the money we invest go further. They combine private sector management skills, money and experience with NHS skills in caring for the patient.

"These schemes provide a 21st century healthcare environment for 21st century healthcare delivery, which means a better environment for patients and staff."

The tenders for the 13 schemes are expected to be advertised in the OJEC (Official Journal of the European Communities) within the next six months and confirm the Government's commitment in the NHS Plan to work in partnership with the private sector to deliver new hospitals on time and on budget.

Details of the schemes:

St Helen's & Knowsley - £228m: Involving four NHS Trusts, this scheme will include four primary care resource centres, intermediate care beds across a range of care settings, a hospital diagnostic and treatment centre, and emergency and acute care. The hospital is currently at 99% capacity and serves an area suffering from deprivation, poor health and high premature death rates. The scheme will increase the overall bed numbers by 197 from 882 to 1,079; clinical staff numbers will increase by 352 (wte).

Wakefield - £200m: The scheme, which is being taken forward by three NHS Trusts, involves the development of a new acute centre at Pinderfields Hospital, with integral diagnostic and treatment centre and on-site rehabilitation facilities. A separate diagnostic and treatment centre is to be built at Pontefract General Infirmary, with accident and emergency, midwife-led delivery, and rehabilitation facilities. There will also be developments to the primary care infrastructure of Wakefield and District. This is a deprived industrial area with high levels of health need and inequality. The scheme will increase the overall bed numbers by 56 from 1,158 to 1,214; clinical staff numbers will increase by 284 (wte).

Leicester - £363m: The scheme, being taken forward by University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust, involves the reconfiguration of three acute hospitals in Leicester to streamline and develop services within two emergency acute hospitals and a centre for planned care and rehabilitation. The current arrangements are inefficient, with poor site organisation and patients being transferred across sites. The scheme will increase the overall bed numbers by 375 from 2,261 to 2,636; clinical staff numbers will increase by 1,920 (fte).

North Staffordshire - £254m: This scheme is being progressed by North Staffordshire Hospitals NHS Trust and North Stoke Primary Care Trust and principally involves a combination of new build - including a DTC - and refurbishment for a new acute hospital developed around the existing City General Site. A community hospital development worth approximately £20m in North Stoke will deliver intermediate care and diagnostic facilities. The scheme will increase the overall bed numbers by 155 from 1,386 to 1,541; clinical staff numbers will increase by over 350 (wte).

Peterborough - £250m: The scheme, which is being taken forward by four NHS Trusts in the locality, involves the reconfiguration of health services to provide expanded primary and intermediate care services. Access will improve thanks to increased capacity and provision of community based intermediate care beds, GP and nurse specialists and primary care-based diagnostic and treatment services. There is also development of an "Acute Hub", including a high-tech diagnostic and treatment centre, by combining three sites on to one, with reprovision of existing Mental Health facilities. The scheme will increase the overall bed numbers by 144 from 692 to 836; clinical staff numbers will increase by over 200(wte).

North Middlesex - £74m: The scheme, being led by North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust, involves the reconfiguration of acute services, including a Diagnostic and Treatment Centre and an Emergency Care Centre incorporating accident and emergency and emergency assessment unit. Clinical staff numbers will remain about the same as it will maintain the current number of beds at 482.

Hull - £53m: The scheme is being taken forward by Hull & East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust and involves the development of a new integrated oncology and clinical haematology unit at Castle Hill Hospital. This will replace the isolated radiotherapy facilities and in-patient oncology wards at the Princess Royal Hospital, from which all other acute in-patient services are being withdrawn under separate reconfiguration schemes now completed or underway. The relocation to Castle Hill Hospital will bring together oncology services and the main cancer surgical specialties, so allowing best use of specialist staff and physical resources to meet with the requirements for the continuing development of the Hull Cancer Centre. In addition the trust has recently gained medical school training status and will be developing academic facilities accordingly. The scheme will increase the overall bed numbers by 38 from 1,495 to 1,533; clinical staff numbers will increase by 118 (wte).

Oxford - £60m: The existing facilities are not sufficiently adequate to deliver the Cancer Plan. The scheme, which is being led by Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust, is to develop an integrated cancer centre on the Churchill Hospital site for outpatient, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and inpatient treatment for clinical and medical oncology, surgery, clinical haematology and medical physics. Scheme will also create three additional operating theatres and six linear accelerator sites. The scheme will increase the overall bed numbers by 128; clinical staff numbers will increase by 180 (wte).

Chelmsford - £110m: This scheme involves the centralisation and modernisation of acute services from the St John's Hospital onto the Broomfield site. This will bring a large isolated maternity unit onto the main site, significantly reducing the clinical risk and inefficiencies posed by split site working. This includes a proposal for a dedicated Diagnostic and Treatment Centre, which will enable the trust to meet its day case targets. The scheme will increase the overall bed numbers by 100 from 792 to 892; clinical staff numbers will increase by 240 (wte).

Walsall - £44m: The scheme involves building a new Children's unit, DTC and Pathology Department on the existing acute hospital site. The scheme will increase beds by 11 from 766 to 777; clinical staff numbers will increase by 240 (wte).

Salford - £175m: The scheme, being led by Salford Royal Hospitals NHS Trust and Salford Primary Care NHS Trust, is a combination of new build and refurbishment at Hope Hospital, as well as five new primary care centres. Salford is an area of high deprivation, with an ageing population and a lack of primary care infrastructure. The scheme will increase the overall bed number across Salford by 215 from 905 to 1120; clinical staff numbers will increase by 353 (wte).

Whipps Cross - £313m: This scheme, being developed by Whipps Cross University Hospital NHS Trust, involves the upgrading of older, unsuitable buildings, and the building of additional facilities. The existing outmoded accommodation has Nightingale wards and mixed sex accommodation which require upgrading. The scheme will increase the overall bed numbers by 62 from 784 to 846; staff numbers will increase by 515 (wte).

Paddington - £327m: The Paddington Health Campus is a partnership between the Royal Brompton & Harefield and St Mary's hospitals, together with Imperial College. The Campus brings together on one integrated site major improvements in acute care for the local community, together with services from two of the country's leading specialist heart and lung hospitals and a major centre for specialist children's services. It builds on Imperial College's substantial teaching and research programmes. It will replace outdated buildings with state of the art facilities and its wide range of services will have excellent links with improved primary care facilities and with the clinical network across north-west London. The Campus will contribute to the wider regeneration of Paddington now underway. The scheme will increase bed numbers by 50; clinical staff numbers will definitely increase (detailed projections not available at the moment).

Notes to Editors

1 The 13 schemes announced today are principally made up of the latest batch of 29 PFI schemes first announced in February 2001. See press release 2001/0088 for further details. The only project not part of this is the Paddington Basin project, which was formally announced in July 1999.

2 The placing of tender notices for individual schemes is subject to formal approval of their Outline Business Case (OBC) by the Department of Health.

3 Staff numbers quoted in this press release are whole time equivalent.

4 The traditional method of providing new hospitals involves the use of public funds to build hospitals. The NHS Trust concerned draws up the detailed specifications for the hospital and a private sector company builds the hospital according to these specifications. The contract is simply for the construction of the building and no support services such as cleaning, catering and maintenance are involved. Once the hospital is built, the private sector's involvement in it ceases. The private sector company is paid through a number of lump sums which it receives during the course of the construction period.

5 Under the PFI, the NHS Trust does not set out to acquire an asset (the hospital) but to purchase a service. And it does not contract with a single firm but with a consortium of firms, including a construction firm and one or more providers of non-clinical services, and it does so for a period of 30 years. This is because the typical PFI contract is a Design, Build, Finance and Operate (DBFO) contract - the private sector designs the hospital, builds it, obtains the funding for the construction and operates some of the non-clinical support services. The private sector is paid an annual fee by the NHS Trust throughout the contract period which is linked to maintaining set performance and quality standards.

6 Media enquiries only to Nicola Plumb on 0207 210 5301 or Mark Devane on 0207 210 5724.