Plans Unveiled For New Leeds Hospitals

Plans Unveiled For New Leeds Hospitals

The blueprint for the new Leeds General Infirmary hospital buildings has been unveiled, with the two new hospitals being built on the site of an old nurses’ home.

Located on Calverley Street, the infirmary and children’s hospital will cost £600 million to build, but will offer state-of-the-art facilities for patients and staff, enabling the best care available to be offered.  

The huge construction project, part of the government’s hospital building project and one of the biggest health-related schemes in the UK, will include demolishing part of the existing Leeds general Infirmary, a process already underway with DSM Demolition presently onsite.

Building work had been scheduled to begin next year, but will now not take place until 2023. Some of the design work is yet to be completed.

Once work does begin, it will create substantial demand for scaffolders in Leeds as the new buildings gradually take shape.

Using modern methods of construction, the scheme will be designed to benefit from a collaborative approach based on working at large scale, with the Trust able to share elements of the project like digital technology and sustainability with smaller projects elsewhere. This will be important as the government’s plan to build 40 new NHS hospitals across the country is gradually rolled out.

Discussing the project, head of healthcare at architects BDP Andrew Smith said: “By applying our experience in designing the best healthcare facilities around the globe we are delivering a healthy and thoughtful hospital design for Leeds.” He added the design concept is one “that looks to the future of best practice and innovation”.

The design of the new hospitals have certainly not been just thrown together, nor fixated simply with the latest fashions or ideas about sustainability. Instead, there has been a local consultation exercise to find out what residents of the city wanted to be included in the new health facilities.

Head designer at BDP Vicky Casey, whose own daughter Mia underwent heart surgery at the children’s hospital, explained that Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust had sent ideas from the public, including local children, highlighting their priorities and these had been incorporated into the design.

“As a result, the new hospital will be the most supportive, stimulating, engaging and interesting place to visit, full of green areas, comfortable spaces and interesting art,” she added.

Chief executive of the trust Julian Hartley described the project as being the most important in Leeds city centre “for a generation”, adding:  “In terms of hospital-based healthcare, it’s the most important development in the city centre since 1868, when Leeds General Infirmary was first built.”    

He added that with this project being so important, it is “wonderful to see that BDP has listened to the feedback we’ve given them and have come up with these concept designs that are thoroughly patient focussed.” Noting that they “place patient and staff wellbeing at the heart of our new hospitals,” he lauded elements such as the abundant exposure to natural light and greenery.

Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust is one of the largest trusts in the country. As well as the infirmary and children’s hospital, it also runs St James’s University Hospital, Chapel Allerton Hospital, Leeds Dental Institute, Seacroft Hospital, Wharfedale Hospital and Leeds Cancer Centre.

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