Calderdale Royal Hospital: Work on new building and car park to start in September, with new wards to follow

While a new learning and development centre and the car park are built at the Calderdale Royal Hospital site at Halifax, planning for new wards, an accident and emergency department and specialist paediatric emergency department will be developed in parallel, say health chiefs.

Calderdale and Kirklees Joint Health Overview Scrutiny Committee, set up as a watchdog over ongoing reconfiguration of hospital services in the two areas, were receiving an update on progress.

Director of Transformation and Partnerships at Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust (CHFT), Anna Basford, said regarding the development of a new accident and emergency unit at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary, work was nearing completion and was on schedule to open in September 2023.

Work at Calderdale Royal – plans include ten additional wards as well as the A&E and paediatric emergency units – should start around the same time.

“Construction is ready to commence with necessary planning approvals in place from this autumn,” she said.

Involved in discussions were national and regional health bodies including NHS England, and Trust’s private finance initiative (PFI) partners, said Ms Basford.

“Excellent progress has been made on those discussions and the Trust is very positive about its anticipation of our ability to commence that construction in this autumn, by the end of September.

“The first of those works will be key enabling works relating to the new learning and development centre and the new multi-storey car park, which are essential undertakings prior to the clinical build at the rear of the hospital,” she said.

Responding to Coun Howard Blagbrough (Calderdale, Con, Brighouse), she said management plans for inevitable disruption would need to be put in place to ensure the hospital could be accessed by patients and staff.

Commitee co-chairs, Coun Colin Hutchinson (Calderdale, Lab, Skircoat) and Coun Liz Smaje (Kirklees, Con, Birstall and Birkenshaw) , and Coun Andrew Cooper (Kirklees, Green, Newsome) all asked questions about finances, including impact on services and whether or not rising construction inflation had been taken into account.

Stuart Baron, of Calderdale and Huddersfield Solutions, a subsidiary of the Trust, said thee had been tested in review and remained in line with expectations, but would be retested again when the full business case for the plans was readied.

Answering Coun Smaje, Ms Basford said a construction partners for the wards and other units, and subsequent detailed development of plans, would take place in parallel with work beginning on estimated 12 months build time for the learning unit and car park, completion of the latter allowing parking elsewhere to be moved, enabling the clinical build to start.

That was expected to take around two and a half years, she said.

Again, costings would be tested for these when the full business case was prepared, she told Coun Smaje.

Mr Baron, responding to Coun Smaje asking about a timescale for the planned reconfiguring of services between the two hospitals, said over an estimated five years following development of the buildings.

Councillors questioned sufficient green infrastructure, for example charging bays for electric cars, had been built into the plans.

They were told that green infrastructure issues had been considered.