New Hospital Programme team visit Nottingham | Latest news

On Wednesday 8 June we hosted a visit from Natalie Forrest, Senior Responsible Officer for the New Hospital Programme, and members of her team, to both the National Rehabilitation Centre site and our QMC and City Hospitals.

The visit was an opportunity to discuss our plans for the National Rehabilitation Centre (NRC) and for our hospitals through Tomorrow’s NUH, both of which are schemes that fall within the remit of the New Hospital Programme (NHP) the government’s commitment to build 40 new hospitals across the country by 2030.

The NRC is an ‘early’ scheme within cohort 2 of the NHP. Pending final approvals, construction will begin in early 2023 with a view to welcoming the first patients by the end of 2024. Situated on the Stanford Hall Rehabilitation Estate near Loughborough and close to the existing Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre, the NRC will seek to transform the way that rehabilitation following serious illness or major trauma is provided in the NHS. Thanks to an academic partnership led by the University of Nottingham and Loughborough University, it will bring together under one roof facilities for clinical rehabilitation, research, innovation and education and training.

The NHP team was shown around the Stanford Hall site by Programme Director Miriam Duffy, and Director of the Defence National Rehabilitation Centre Programme, General Sir Tim Granville-Chapman, in order to see first-hand the benefits that this unique and beautiful setting will bring for patients’ recovery. They were also able to gain an appreciation of how the proximity to the Defence facility will support the sharing of best practice in rehabilitation.

Miriam said: “Having recently appointed Integrated Health Projects (a joint venture between Sir Robert McAlpine and Vinci Construction UK) as our construction partner, there is now a real sense of momentum in the programme, and it won’t be long before we are able to get spades in the ground. It was fantastic to be able to welcome Natalie Forrest and her team to site today and to have their support as we head through the final months of the approvals process.”

From the NRC, the NHP team travelled to the City Hospital where they had a presentation from Tomorrow’s NUH Programme Director Phil Britt. Tomorrow’s NUH is a much larger scheme than the NRC, and covers the significant redevelopment and reconfiguration work that we plan to do across both the City and QMC hospital sites. As a cohort 4 scheme in the NHP, the funding allocation for Tomorrow’s NUH will come after 2025, but vital work is happening now to pull together the strategic case and prepare for a public consultation on the proposals early next year.

The NHP team heard in detail about the proposed clinical model  underpinning the Tomorrow’s NUH plans, but were also able to explore with us some of the challenges we face in ensuring the necessary enabling works get underway early in order to be able to progress the plans as a whole within the 2030 timescale and within budget. Walkarounds at both the City Hospital and QMC enabled them to appreciate some of the developments that need to happen now to improve our hospital buildings ahead of the Tomorrow’s NUH timeline.

Alison Wynne, Director of Strategy and Transformation at NUH and Senior Responsible Officer for the Tomorrow’s NUH Programme said: “The NHP team were able to share some really valuable insights for us based on their experience of the other schemes in the programme that are further ahead than Tomorrow’s NUH. It’s great that we will be able to build on the learnings so far, and we really value the perspective and challenge that the NHP team brings. We’re looking forward to working with them over the next few years as we seek to realise our vision for the future of our hospitals.”