MENTAL HEALTH CO-EDITOR GLORIA DARGATZ
THE EAST OF ENGLAND’S FIRST DEDICATED CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL SEEKS PLANNING PERMISSION FOR EARLY DESIGNS The region’s first dedicated children’s hospital has taken another step forward this week by submitting a planning application to Cambridge City Council consisting of early designs for Cambridge Children’s Hospital.
research alongside clinical expertise in physical and mental child health, Cambridge Children’s Hospital will be a brand new state-of-the-art hospital designed to take care of the whole child, not just their illness.
The submission of the formal ‘reserved matters’ planning application builds on the existing outline planning permission which was granted for the site previously. The move comes after the early designs and floor plans were shared with the Council’s planning committee in August.
With an estimated total footprint of around 36,000sq m, including 5000sq m of research space, the drawings are an early indication of how this innovative hospital might look when it opens in 2025. The plans also include details of possible future development for the hospital beyond 2025.
Built on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, the hospital will care for children and young people from across the whole region – Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire - but also nationally and internationally, as a ‘hospital without walls’. Embedding genomic and psychological
Meanwhile, work continues on developing the Outline Business Case, which has to be approved by HM Treasury, and on the fundraising campaign which was announced earlier in 2021. There is still much further to go before building work can begin and the vision for this muchneeded facility is realised.
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