Nuffield tables plan for £75m hospital
NOT-for-profit organisation Nuffield Health has submitted a planning application for a £75m hospital and wellbeing centre in Manchester city centre.
Located on a five-acre site adjacent to the Manchester Royal Infirmary, Nuffield says the project will see the construction of one of the most modern and technologically advanced tertiary hospitals in the UK and will add to its network of 31 other hospitals across the country.
The proposed 131,000sq ft building on the site of Manchester Metropolitan University’s former Elizabeth Gaskell campus – set across three floors – will comprise 30 consultation rooms, 60 patient en-suite bedrooms, eight critical care beds, six operating theatres, diagnostic imaging suite.
A rehabilitation gym with physiotherapy will also be provided, set within an integrated wellbeing centre located at the heart of the building.
Nuffield Health’s Manchester marketing director Barbara Baker said: “We have consulted widely in developing our plans for the hospital and have now submitted a planning application which we believe will not only deliver a ground breaking hospital and wellbeing centre but will see the sensitive regeneration of this area of land which has been in a state of neglect for several years.
“As part of the services that the proposed hospital would deliver, we are working in close partnership with Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, to support essential NHS services which are operating at capacity.
“Another key relationship will be with the Manchester Metropolitan University in a wellbeing research and evaluation role.”
The scheme has been designed by Pozzoni Architecture. Director Nigel Saunders said: “The scheme has been designed to respond sensitively to the site, having operating theatres to the main road frontages, with bedrooms and consultation rooms configured to overlook a leafy landscape setting.”
The first phase of demolition work on campus and site remediation has already been completed and, subject to planning permission, construction is due to begin next year. Access to the site is off Hathersage Road and 200 parking spaces will be provided. The hospital is scheduled to open in early 2018.
