Design team wanted for new £740m Cheshire hospital
RAAC woes have meant the current Leighton Hospital campus in Crewe is due for a replacement – and now the Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is looking for a design team to bring the project forward.
The £4m contract is set to begin on 31 May this year and conclude in May 2030. The task is to progress the new £740m hospital through RIBA stages two and three. This is not a principal designer role, but one that will focus on providing services relating to inclusive design, lighting, acoustics, façade engineering, and medical equipment.
In addition to a digital architect, the successful team would include an M&E engineer with specialisms in net zero carbon, lifts, and fire engineering; and a civil and structural engineer with experience in transport planning.
The fruit of the design team’s labours would be a project that will, in the words of the tender notice, “transform the quality of healthcare for the people of Cheshire and across the North West of England”.
The notice also describes the ambition for the new hospital to feature “an integrated systems approach [that] will provide ‘optimised, standardised, and repeatable solutions for scheme development, design, construction, and operation.’”
The tender exercise runs until 5pm on 16 February,
The new Leighton Hospital campus is part of the government’s £20bn New Hospitals Programme, having been selected for the scheme after reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete was found in 80% of its buildings. RAAC poses a health and safety risk because, if damaged, it can suddenly collapse.
Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust estimates the construction cost for the new hospital will be around £341m, with an initial capital requirement of £740m being required.
Who approved building a hospital knowing it would have a short life span
By Anonymous
Who ever gets the job, has to include adequate parking for hospital patients and visitors that do not have high charges attached. The current site plan has lost many parking places with pretty plans and the construction of many side clinic buildings, and mini offices. The visiting patients are being forced into terrible problems getting a parking place and being on time for the appointment they have. Let us hope the whole job is run better than the many alterations which have already taken place to many wards, and the whole place is better.
By Karen Andrews