Work wraps on £40m Bolton Institute of Medical Sciences

Contractor Willmott Dixon has completed the practical build of the University of Bolton healthcare training facility off Redgate Way in Farnworth.

Internal fit-out of the five-storey school is currently taking place, with the Institute of Medical Sciences set to open to students in September.

Half of the funds required for the £40m scheme came from the government’s 2021 Levelling Up Fund award. The £20m from LUF was matched by the university.

The 81,000 sq ft IMS sits on three acres that was once a car park for the Royal Bolton Hospital. When it opens, the institute will teach more than 3,000 pupils a year about physiotherapy, nursing, midwifery, and more. IMS is also designed to provide additional professional training for those already working in the NHS.

This is just the first part of the IMS dream. The second is for it to become a medical school. If IMS can secure approval from the General Medical Council, it will start educating student doctors in September 2025.

Professor George Holmes, vice chancellor of the University of Bolton, described the practical completion of the institute as “incredibly rewarding”.

“It is a privilege to be home to one of the nation’s leading clinical skills facilities here in Greater Manchester and this is a key step in our aim to become a national centre of excellence for health.”

The university’s project director for IMS, Mark O’Reilly, was similarly full of praise. He added: “To see the project come to life over the last few years since construction began has been remarkable.

“I have been working with the University on the IMS project since we were aiming to achieve planning permission, and it is brilliant to have today reached practical completion.”

The outcome of the practical completion is more than just a building – Willmott Dixon noted that it exceeded its social value aims during the build process, with £13.3m being spent within a 20-mile radius of the project. The target had been £6m. Of the 28 jobs created during the work, 13 were filled by Bolton residents.

Willmott Dixon’s senior operations manager Mike Walmsley said: “It was clear from the start what impact this building will make both locally and nationally when complete, but the positive impact it has already made during the construction period has been brilliant.”

Walmsley added later: “This new transformational centre of learning for the University of Bolton will become a template that others will follow and is expected to deliver at least £150m to the local economy over its lifetime.”

Associated Architects designed IMS, with Box Clever Consulting as the project manager. MA Cost Consulting was the scheme’s quantity surveyor. Edgeplan helped the project secure planning permission in 2022.

You can see the original plans by searching application reference number 13467/22 on Bolton Council’s planning portal.