Paddington Health Campus must draw up new plans

North West London Strategic Health Authority will have to go back to the drawing board and draw up a new outline business case (OBC) for the controversial Paddington Health Campus (PHC) scheme. 

The Authority has until October to present a new OBC, which will include new configurations for the PHC alongside other options including the separate redevelopments of the Royal Brompton and St Mary's hospitals.

The original PHC plan was for the transfer of the Royal Brompton and Harefield hospitals to brand new hospital built alongside St mary's teaching hospital. The scheme was thought ot have a maximum value of £800m. The original OBC was presented in November 2000. Since then the scheme has increased in scope to cover the provision of extended facilities at Imperial College and a new building for the National Heart and Lung institute.

In total 1,080 beds were to be reprovided on the PHC site. This brief was further complicated by the need to transfer staff with minimum disruption and keep all health services on site running smoothly throughout the construction work.

The scheme has been dogged by local opposition, while the sheer size and complexity led to a Treasury review.

A pre-information notice was issued in July last year. Speaking to CJ earlier this year, St Mary's chief executive Julian Nettel said: "In discussions with the private sector we were advised that it would be better to bring the scheme to market in late spring to early summer this year."

Royal Brompton and Harefield deputy chief executive Professor Anthony Newman Taylor confirmed not all Harefield's work will be transferred to the PHC. "As many as two-thirds of harefield's cardiology patients will not need to travel to Paddington as they will be treated innnew loacl services at their nearest general hospital."