News

Redevelopment update for St Mary's, Charing Cross and Hammersmith hospitals 4 Feb 2022

With the support of the New Hospital Programme, Imperial College Healthcare is beginning the next phase of redevelopment planning work for its three main hospital sites, all of which are included in the 40 new hospitals the government has committed to build by 2030. This involves progressing more detailed work on options, feasibility and preparation for each site which will also include broadening involvement – and facilitating co-design – with staff, patients, local communities and other stakeholders.

The latest position for all three main developments, along with an update on the partial closure of the Western Eye Hospital, are outlined below:

St Mary’s Hospital

The Trust formally submitted its ‘strategic outline case’ for the full redevelopment of St Mary’s in September 2021 as the first stage of the approval process within the New Hospital Programme. It makes the strategic case to create clinical, research and innovation facilities with a total of 840-beds, along with a clinical life sciences cluster in partnership with industry and research. Investment is currently estimated at £1.2-1.7 billion net once receipts from the sale of surplus land are taken into account.

The Trust expects more clarity on the approval process and timing for the redevelopment this Spring. In the meantime, the Trust is continuing to work up options for phasing the redevelopment to explore whether it can accelerate key aspects of delivery and benefit realisation and spread the costs. The Trust is also now looking to create a high-level masterplan for the whole St Mary’s site, exploring the scale of the total development opportunity including on land that will no longer be required due to more efficient use of the space.

There will be more opportunities for staff, patients and local communities and others to get involved in the planning and preparation work over the coming weeks and months.

Depending on approval of the strategic outline case, and release of further funding for redevelopment planning work, the Trust hopes to be able to submit a more detailed outline business case in 2023. This should allow it to work to a timetable that would deliver the vast majority of the redevelopment by 2030.

Charing Cross and Hammersmith hospitals

The next phase of planning work for Charing Cross Hospital (major refurbishment plus some significant rebuilding) and Hammersmith Hospital (a mix of redevelopment and some new building) will start in March this year.

This work will build on the infrastructure and feasibility assessment of Charing Cross and Hammersmith undertaken in Spring 2021. The assessment identified priority renovation and redevelopment areas needed to make the hospitals fit for the future. The current backlog maintenance liability (the cost of work required just to get the buildings back into an acceptable working condition) is £328 million at Charing Cross and £102 million at Hammersmith, highlighting the urgent need for redevelopment.

The assessment also calculated the amount of clinical space likely to be needed to meet modern healthcare standards and future demand – indicating the need for an increase of 64 per cent at Hammersmith and 6 per cent at Charing Cross. It showed that many facilities for the sickest patients – such as A&E, operating theatres and intensive care units – are located in buildings unable to meet current technical requirements – 47 per cent of ‘high acuity’ services at Hammersmith and 38 per cent at Charing Cross.

The next phase of work will involve creating and evaluating a longlist of options for delivering the improvements and capacity required for each site. The Trust has already confirmed that both hospitals will need to have at least the same number of beds as now and that there will continue to be a full A&E at Charing Cross. The options will be evaluated and developed with input from a wide range of patients, staff and the local communities, as well as formal partners and stakeholders, before a preferred way forward is identified for each site.

This is the first step in creating a costed redevelopment plan for each site which will inform a strategic outline case for both hospitals. The Trust aims to submit the business cases to the New Hospital Programme for first-stage approval early next year. Following approval, the next stage of the design process will start later in 2023 and include a range of further opportunities for co-design. The estimated start of renovations and construction is 2026, with phased completion from 2030 onwards.

Western Eye Hospital

In November 2021, a review of the vacant Samaritan Hospital, which is adjacent to the Western Eye Hospital, raised fire safety concerns. The Trust took the immediate precaution of closing some areas of the Western Eye while more detailed investigations, and anticipated remedial works, take place.

The majority of services displaced from the Western Eye have been temporarily rehomed at Charing Cross Hospital and more outpatient appointments are taking place by video or telephone. Charing Cross already provides some specialist ophthalmology care.

The Trust is developing a plan to restore operating theatre capacity lost due to the partial closure of the Western Eye from March with a mobile operating theatre at Charing Cross. The Trust also expects to be able to share findings of the investigations of the Western Eye building and options on next steps next month.

Within the Trust’s overall redevelopment strategy, the proposal has always been to move the Western Eye’s services into one of the main, redeveloped hospital sites and to sell the Samaritan and Western Eye buildings together to maximise the income to be reinvested in the overall redevelopment programme.

If you would like more information about redevelopment or to get involved in any aspect of the planning work, please contact: imperial.involvement@nhs.net