Huge plans to build a new children’s heart unit at Newcastle’s Royal Victoria Infirmary could be approved next week.
The £40m development would see the Freeman Hospitals’ renowned specialist children’s heart services move to a “striking” new home in the city centre. A major government cash injection to fund the state of the art facility at the RVI secured the future of child heart surgery in the North East in 2019, after NHS England had said services could only continue in the region if they were relocated from the Freeman to the same site as the RVI’s Great North Children's Hospital.
Designs for the new centre were unveiled earlier this year and would see the three-storey unit built on a section of the existing RVI car park in Queen Victoria Road, connected to the rest of the hospital via an enclosed footbridge. The proposals now look set to be given the go-ahead by city councillors next Friday, with the new building described as a “highly prized addition to the existing children’s hospital that would benefit the whole of the North East”.
The centre, due to become fully operational by 2031 and cater for around 50 patients at any one time, was given a £41.7m boost from the government to make the relocation possible. Members of Newcastle City Council’s planning committee have been recommended to approve the project next week, with a report from city planners calling the scheme “innovative” and “welcoming”.
They wrote: “The delivery of a specialist paediatric cardiothoracic centre alongside the Great North Children’s Hospital on the RVI site would facilitate the creation of a centre of clinic excellence in children’s health care for the North East region. The design has been developed to provide an environment where patients and staff would have access to a therapeutic environment that is modern, light and attractive.
“The building would occupy a prominent frontage to the hospital. Its innovative design, incorporating a bold range of colours and patination would deliver a striking addition to the RVI site. The design has been plotted to achieve demanding sustainability requirements, targeting net zero carbon in operation.
“The inclusion of features such as arrays of photovoltaic cells and a private landscape garden for patients would all contribute to making it a sustainable and attractive environment. The operational need for supporting detached plantroom buildings at the prominent front entrance to the RVI site would result in minor harm to adjacent heritage assets.
“This harm would be clearly outweighed by the overall economic, social and environmental public benefits which the scheme would deliver, including the expansion of hospital and specialist healthcare facilities at the RVI site for children and young people to link in with the existing operation of the GNCH and the wider economic benefits arising from the development.”
The building of the new children’s heart unit would result in 139 parking spaces outside the RVI being lost. Hospital trust bosses are hoping to mitigate that by opening up spaces at its recently-built second multi-storey car park in Richardson Road to visitors and patients, as it is currently restricted to staff and contractors only.
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