Agenda item

The Committee received a presentation to update Members on Shotley Bridge Hospital (for copy of slides, see file of minutes).

Mr Richard Morris, Associate Director of Operations, County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust was in attendance to deliver the presentation.

The presentation focused on the project principles; progress update; proposed site layout; assurance and approval and the next steps.

Councillor Haney asked when the hospital was built how many parking spaces were going to be lost and would parking be free.

The Associate Director of Operations confirmed that parking would be free. With regard to parking spaces, the current site was built for a different purpose. There were national requirements that they had to meet as part of the planning permission that follows the guidelines and advised that there would be fewer parking spaces than the original design for the new building due the site now been smaller. He continued that there would be adequate parking for the number of staff and patients together with electric vehicle parking on site, with the ability to expand this if there was the requirement.

Councillor Haney indicated that there was no possibility for expansion and what they were going to end up with was something significantly inferior to what was originally promised. The lack of future expansion was a serious obstacle and a considerable downgrade on what was originally promised.

The Associate Director of Operations reassured Councillor Haney that the hospital was not a downgrade and stated that the existing building was very tired that required a lot of money to be spent to keep it functioning. The new build would be the best new build they could do at this point. They had to accept that there had been a number of economic factors which had impacted on the original scheme. He stated that it was not an inferior hospital and that the new facility would offer what they said it was going to offer, it was just in a different way.

Councillor Haney did not accept that this was going to better or the same and asked if the money was available and when would the build commence.

The Associate Director of Operations stated that the site could not expand as it was a ringfenced piece of land but there were minor parts on the site that could expand. He commented that it was not the big expansion capacity that may have been in the future. They could have looked at it in a different way and stated that a lot of health care was now being delivered in people’s homes or community centres or other areas that were not hospital based. He was confident that what they had planned fits the needs of the community hospital.

Councillor Early stated that this had to be the future and try to keep Shotley Bridge Hospital afloat on a decaying building after so many years wasn’t going to happen. He commented that he was Chairman on the Hospital Trust 20 years ago and he was part of the plan that produced the community hospital as it currently sat in Shotley Bridge. He suggested that the existing site is not fit for purpose and the clinical case for expansion at Shotley Bridge was not evident, thus leading to the proposed project before members. The key issue for local members and the community was how long it would take to deliver the new facility.

The Associate Director of Operations responded that the contract review process was currently ongoing and would let Paul Davies from the National Hospitals Programme expand on this.

Jackie McDonald and Jane Curry were in attendance and briefed Members on the redesign of clinical services for the new hospital, in particular, bringing some services together to enable the sharing of facilities and moving a ward to the ground floor with its own entrance.

Councillor Shield, Local Ward Member for Leadgate and Medomsley stated that he had being involved with the proposed new hospital since 2017, but they still had not had a written commitment and asked if they could have the guarantee that the new hospital would go ahead.

Mr Paul Davies, Project Lead, International Hospital Programme was in attendance and provided Members with an overview of where they were in the new hospital process. Members were advised that the scheme would be submitted to New Hospital Programme Investment Committee next week and hopefully would then move to JIG and if approved at this Committee then funding would be allocated for the programme. There was also the issue of the land to secure for the new hospital.

Councillor Early asked about the timeframe around delivering in terms of value for money if the process takes beyond the set contractors within the framework as the price would only go one way and the process would start again.

The Project Lead responded that the tender was fixed at this point in time and stated that there was inflationary industry index to apply to that.

Councillor Early referred to the land acquisition issue and asked if the window to move into the acquisition earlier than the due figure was possible.

The Project Lead responded that it was two elements of a process once they get the schemed financial allocation confirmed then they could look to pursue the land purchase. He stated in the past if there was a challenge with the land this could be one of the risks on the scheme, but they do not envisage the land being an issue with this scheme.

Mr Nick Davey, Portfolio Lead for the New Hospitals Programme stated that a year ago they were provided with a pot of money that they believed they would be able to deliver the scheme for. They had experienced some challenging factors around inflation over the last few years. They had revised the programme business case that had been submitted to the Treasury to look at opportunities to increase the budget. He continued that contingencies are managed in a number of ways, a contingency applied to the Trusts ability to manage within the budget, contingencies held at higher level up in the programme and by the responsible for the organisation. In terms of affordability and the challenges this scheme has not met the expectations of the Treasury of the bottom-line costs and as a whole team they need to get a solution that meets the community’s needs. The unaffordability continues at this stage so what was going forward to the Integrated Care Board (ICB) was still a proposal that was over and above the money that the Treasury had allotted. They had undertaken a lot of work to get the scheme as close as possible and his recommendation was to approve the scheme. At a programme level the issue was every pound that was spent on one Trust over and above what the Treasury has allocated has to be taken from another Trust. They needed to try and manipulate the available budget across the whole national programme to serve everyone’s needs at that time. The need for this scheme was now and the recommendation was that the scheme needed an amount of money to move forward. He would expect to see the scheme at the end of the business process by the end of 2025 early 2026 then on site straight after.

Councillor Haney referred to the inflation and presumed that this was included in the original scheme with built in contingencies but what they could not count on was Trust money budget. He continued that this was the cheapest hospital in the programme and the government could choose not to give the extra cash for the programme that should never had been in the programme to begin with.

The Portfolio Lead responded that he was unable to give a guarantee and stated that it was moving forward to the Investment committee meeting.

In response to a further question from Councillor Haney, Members were provided with an estimated cost of the scheme.

Councillor Hovvels stated that they should not underestimate the amount of work put into where they are today, and that certain obstacles were out of their control. They had fought hard to ensure that some of the services stayed within the area as these services were not just important to the locality but also the wider county. She continued that she would like to see an end date but knew that it was not possible until the funding was secured and hoped that they did get a new hospital and understood the complexities, the end result will be marvellous and was a flagship for the area and hoped they did succeed.

The Chair indicated that the project was too good to lose, and they would timetable a further update in the Committee’s 2024/25 work programme.

Resolved: That the contents of the presentation be noted.