1.1 The Paddington Health Campus scheme, first proposed in 1998, was aimed at bringing together, on a single Campus in the Paddington Basin, the clinical services of St Mary's NHS Trust and the Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Trust - alongside new research facilities for Imperial College's Faculty of Medicine, moved from the Royal Brompton and Harefield campuses. These three organisations are referred to collectively in this report as the Campus partners (Figure 2).
2 | The Campus partners |
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St Mary's NHS Trust is a large teaching hospital employing 3,300 staff. It is a multi-site Trust which largely occupies outdated and run-down accommodation in and around Paddington. More than 60 per cent of the buildings at the Trust were long overdue for decommissioning with many failing to meet Health and Safety and Disability Discrimination Act requirements. The basic remedial maintenance required to correct unchecked estate degradation had a cost of almost £74 million and the estimated cost to update buildings to modern standards was £465 million. The Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS trust was created by a Trust merger in 1998 and provides a complete range of specialist heart and lung services through its 2,300 employees. Doctors and scientists working at the Trust and the National Heart and Lung Institute undertake internationally recognized research into heart and lung disease treatment. Approximately two-thirds of patient accommodation was both over 70 years old and fell below the minimum suitable condition.2 The basic remedial maintenance required to correct unchecked estate degradation had a cost of almost £21 million and the estimated cost to update buildings to modern standards was £294 million. Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine has a world-wide reputation as a centre of excellence for teaching and research in science and medicine. The Imperial College Faculty of Medicine is one of the largest and most prestigious centres of biomedical research and teaching in the UK, with over 700 faculty members active in research. As a result of the proposed moves of the NHS hospitals from the Royal Brompton and from the Harefield Campuses, it was necessary also to relocate Imperial College's closely associated research and teaching facilities, particularly its National Heart and Lung Institute, from these campuses to the proposed Paddington Health Campus. | ||
Source: 2004 OBC and National Audit Office |
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NOTES | ||
1 Partnerships UK became a co-sponsor of the Campus scheme with effect from July 2002 when it agreed a Development Partnership Agreement with the two NHS Trusts. | ||
2 Condition B as defined in NHS Estate Code: sound, operationally safe and exhibits only minor deterioration. | ||