Statement on next steps for the redevelopment of St Mary’s Hospital
The New Hospital Programme has confirmed that Imperial College Healthcare will be able to continue to detailed design and planning for its St Mary’s Hospital redevelopment in Paddington. This phase of work is intended to conclude with planning consent for a new hospital within a redeveloped life sciences campus in 2027/28. A first tranche of £19.4 million is due to be released this month from what is anticipated to be a total of around £50 million to complete this phase.
Chief executive of Imperial College Healthcare, Professor Tim Orchard, said: “At the same time as progressing design and planning we will be stepping up work with partners to develop options for reducing the amount of New Hospital Programme funding required for construction, aiming to be able to bring forward the start date. This will include setting up a taskforce with Westminster City Council and MPs representing Westminster wards focused on identifying additional funding options for St Mary’s. We will also be helping to expand Imperial College London and Hammersmith and Fulham Council's Upstream London industrial strategy that is curating the benefits of life science developments involving all our hospitals – St Mary’s, Charing Cross, Hammersmith, Queen Charlotte’s and Chelsea and the Western Eye.
“We have an exceptional opportunity to make a significant contribution to economic growth through the expansion of Paddington Life Sciences – the life sciences hub surrounding St Mary’s – at the same time as building the new hospital to replace our current facilities, some of which are 180 years old.
“Independent analysis shows an expanded Paddington Life Sciences will create an additional 12-15,000 jobs and generate up to £1.5 billion in new economic activity annually. Along with Imperial College London and Hammersmith and Fulham Council’s White City Innovation District, co-located with our Hammersmith Hospital, it is also an integral part of the wider Imperial West Tech Corridor. Achieving planning consent for the redevelopment of St Mary’s will provide an immediate, additional boost to investor confidence, helping us enormously as we compete with life science propositions across Europe.
“And while St Mary’s has the most pressing needs and economic benefits, there will be similar opportunities for our two other hospitals in the New Hospital Programme, Charing Cross and Hammersmith. As they both involve phased refurbishment and some new build, rather than a full redevelopment, we have a little more time to work through options.”
Further information
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All of the Trust’s redevelopment schemes remain in wave 3 of NHP schemes, with central NHP funding for construction not due to be released until 2035 at the earliest.
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St Mary’s is Imperial College Healthcare’s hospital in most urgent need of redevelopment, with the number of estate failures – and the scale of their impact – escalating, and bed occupancy regularly at 100 per cent. We spend around £10 million a year just on essential repairs. Some services are run from facilities built in 1845 and over half the estate pre-dates the NHS. As the busiest of London’s four major trauma centres, the consequences for the capital’s wider healthcare system of having to close or move services due to further building failures at St Mary’s are enormous.
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The redevelopment will involve building a new, 800-840 bed hospital with integrated research facilities in the east of the St Mary’s estate. It will be primarily one, tall building on a smaller footprint than the current facilities which are spread across the ten-acre site. We intend for the land that is surplus to requirements to be redeveloped to support the expansion of Paddington Life Sciences. Read more about our redevelopment here.
