Hospital in line for £30m revamp

A £30million redevelopment scheme that could transform the Whittington Hospital is expected to start this spring.

The plan calls for the demolition of two of the hospital's Victorian buildings, the construction of a new fourstorey wing and a new main entrance closer to the transport facilities of Archway.

The hospital management believes the project will create a hi-tech medical facility with new wards and the possibility of diagnosing and treating large numbers of patients on the same day.

The money is being raised through a Private Finance Initiative deal for which the Jarvis construction company is the preferred bidder. The company will build the new facilities and maintain them for 30 years on a lease-back scheme funded out of the hospital's budget. At the end of this period the development will belong to the hospital.

Health Secretary Alan Milburn is known to favour PFI arrangements to get investment into the health service and he championed such deals when he was at the Treasury. It is now virtually impossible to build a new hospital any other way.

The redevelopment of the Whittington, due to be completed in 2004, is aimed at combining some of its core facilities with the new space. It includes shifting the orientation of the building 90 degrees south to move the entrance from Highgate Hill to Magdala Avenue in Archway.

The new building comprises an atrium with retail, education and catering areas on an upper level and above that facilities including a 24-hour assessment ward, a 15-bed critical care unit and an acute ward. The new areas will be linked to the hospital's casualty department in the present out-patient block.

Islington council will be asked to approve planning permission next month and a contract is expected to be signed in the spring.