The Christie outlines £176m estates investment

The Christie NHS Foundation Trust has set out a £176m investment in its estate including a £150m replacement for the fire-damaged Patterson Building and a new cancer centre in Macclesfield.

Speaking at Place North West’s healthcare property update, Jason Dawson, director of capital, estates, and facilities at The Christie, said the trust was “in a very fortunate position” to invest capital into its sites.

The largest investment will be £150m towards an overhaul of the site of the Patterson Building, which was severely damaged by a fire around 12 months ago.

Following the fire, many of the building’s staff were moved to Alderley Park, and The Christie considered a number of options including repairing the existing building, or replacing it with a new-build.

However, the trust has now decided to bring forward a new-build option, which will also integrate the proposed Manchester Centre for Cancer Biomarker Sciences.

This new centre will be designed to bring research and patient care “under the same roof,” said Dawson, and would be shared between Cancer Research UK, the University of Manchester, and The Christie for research purposes. Although the specific plans for the building are still at early stages, the trust is working with planner Turley to bring the scheme forward.

It is expected the building will complete in early 2021, and staff are expected to relocate back from Alderley Park.

The Christie is also planning its third satellite centre in Macclesfield, which will provide both radiotherapy and chemotherapy. This is expected to cost around £26m with the majority funded through charitable donations, and a number of contractors including Graham are already understood to be looking at the project.

“We are seeing a real shift from traditional hospital treatment towards localising access to treatment, and we want to provide a network of centres across the North West,” said Dawson.

“But we also need to remember the sites in our estate still need investment to keep pace with the new; otherwise you have a mix-and-match of old and new estate”.

He said the recently-built Proton Beam Therapy Centre, due to welcome its first patients later in the year, had been “a huge challenge to deliver” but praised the project team including construction partner Interserve, engineer Arup and architect HKS.

Other projects The Christie is bringing forward include a car park at its Didsbury site, which secured planning permission earlier this year.

Two existing buildings will be demolished to make way for The Christie’s new multi-storey car park