A leading figure at Nottingham's hospital trust said major new plans, which include the potential merging of the city's maternity units, have received "really positive" feedback. Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) released the proposals in March as part of Tomorrow's NUH, a programme aimed at transforming its services and facilities by 2030.
The plans, funded by the Government's New Hospital Programme, are expected to reach a consultation phase by the end of the year, according to NUH chief operations officer Lisa Kelly. "We're just in the pre-consultation phase at the moment and we're hoping that we get to the place before Christmas, so towards the end of the year, where we go into our main consultation phase," she told Nottinghamshire Live.
"There's been an ability for key stakeholders to contribute already but there will be another once we get it out that outline business case phase towards the end of the year so people can feed into that." Maternity services would be placed under one roof at a proposed Women’s and Children’s Hospital on the Queen's Medical Centre site, instead of also at City Hospital.
Read more: Maternity services to move to Nottingham's Queen's Medical Centre under major new plans
The NHS trust also proposed that children’s A&E, neonatal and paediatric intensive care units will be in the same place. Ms Kelly said that the feedback so far had been "great", adding that there would be "lots more" opportunities for members of the public to have their say.
"We've had really positive feedback actually, yes. Obviously the local population of Nottingham and Nottinghamshire want to make sure they've got the best possible facilities," she said. "It's been really clinically led - the modelling of the services and how they'll be configured across the two main sites. There's going to be lots more consultation and more opportunity for people to feed into it."
There are also plans for a new multi-storey car park on the grounds of the QMC. The QMC has been allocated a share of £100m in seed funding from the Department of Health and Social Care. The funding pledged to NUH marks the second wave of the Government's Health Infrastructure Plan. As part of the first phase, a total of more than £2b was given to six trusts to fund new hospitals.
