£370k grant for Tomorrow’s NUH enabling works

A 1,500-space multi-storey car park and other essential works to enable the redevelopment of the hospitals have moved another step closer to becoming a reality at Nottingham University Hospitals thanks to national funding.

Nottingham University Hospitals has been granted £370,000 from the New Hospital Programme to allow them to further scope and explore plans for key projects needed to prepare our hospital sites ready for the future changes proposed by the Tomorrow’s NUH programme.

Tomorrow’s NUH is in Cohort 4 of the national New Hospitals Programme and is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reimagine the main hospital sites and look at how and where services are delivered so that they are more joined up and accessible.

Philip Britt, Programme Director for Tomorrow’s NUH, explained that any changes proposed under the Tomorrow’s NUH programme will be subject to public consultation and while this has not yet taken place, it is important to prepare the ground through these enabling works for any future implementation.

He said: “This funding is vital in paving the way for the future of our hospitals because it allows us to prepare the QMC site ready for the wider Tomorrow’s NUH plans should they be approved following consultation.

“We know that any redevelopment on the QMC site will require us to have the space to be able to build new facilities and these inevitably will need to be constructed on existing car parks, and therefore we are going to continue to progress our plans for the 1,500 space multi-story car park so we are ready to proceed.

“We will also start to work with National Grid to make sure the power supply to both our sites meets the future needs of our staff and patients.”

Part of the £370,000 will be used to update the outline business case for the 1,500-space multi-storey car park to reflect the predicted number of vehicles needing to use it, the number of electric vehicle charging spaces and other changes to the QMC site. This car park is essential for the delivery of the Tomorrow’s NUH Programme as it will free up two ground level car parks to enable the potential construction of new clinical facilities, should they be approved following consultation.

In addition, the £370,000 will help to fund technical assessments with the National Grid and develop a business case to ensure that the power supply infrastructure will meet the needs of the Tomorrow’s NUH programme at both sites.