Grand designs – have your say on the first look of the new hospital in Sutton
Local people, patients and staff are invited to have their say on the early designs of the new Specialist Emergency Care Hospital, which is going to be built on the site of the former Sutton Hospital, in a series of public events later this month.
Since the proposal to build a brand new hospital in Sutton and invest millions of pounds in refurbishing the existing Epsom and St Helier hospitals was approved last year, work has been ongoing to plan the footprint of the new building and what it might look like – and now it’s time for those early designs to be revealed and local people to have their say.
This is the first phase of pre-planning consultation on the new Specialist Emergency Care Hospital plans, which will be located next to the Royal Marsden Hospital, and reveals a first glimpse of what the building can offer.
Chief Executive of Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust, Daniel Elkeles, said: “We are incredibly proud to be leading the Building Your Future Hospitals programme – the dedicated programme of work to build a new Specialist Emergency Care Hospital in Sutton and extensively refurbish the buildings and facilities at Epsom Hospital and St Helier Hospital.
“Building Your Future Hospitals represents the biggest investment in health care in the region for a generation. It and will transform Epsom and St Helier hospitals and ensure that local people can access the care they need – from urgent care to outpatient appointments, and much more – in facilities that are fit for 21st century healthcare. In addition, a brand new hospital facility will be built on the old Sutton Hospital site (directly next to the Royal Marsden Hospital and the Institute of Cancer Research). This is an incredible development and will mean that Epsom, St Helier and the Specialist Emergency Care Hospital will be here to care for you and your families for generations to come.
“Our nurses, doctors, estates experts and other health and social care workers have been working incredibly hard to set out the initial designs of the new hospital, and we want local residents to have their say before we get any further in the planning application process. The plans will bring a vast array of improvements and have already been further enhanced as a result of what we have learnt from Covid-19, including making sure 72% of hospital beds are in single en-suite rooms compared to the 20% we can offer now, and a 28 bed ITU compared to the 15 beds we currently have. Please join us at one of our virtual online events and give us your feedback.”
The new hospital will be one of 40 under the Government’s New Hospital Programme and is one of six in the first phase of the programme, benefiting from £2.7 billion of funding from 2020 to 2025. The plans will also see at least £80 million spent across both Epsom and St Helier hospitals to invest in essential repairs and refurbishments to enable those hospitals to focus on delivering excellent planned and elective care.
Whilst six major services are moving to the new hospital in Sutton, 85% of the current services are staying at Epsom and St Helier hospitals, so the vast majority of patients will see no change to where they receive care. The new hospital will bring together six major services - A&E, Critical Care, Acute Medicine, Emergency Surgery, Inpatient Paediatrics, and Maternity Services. Whilst A&E facilities will be concentrated at the new Sutton hospital, 24-hour urgent care centres will be open at both the Epsom and St Helier hospitals, as well as a wide range host of outpatient services and diagnostic tests. Planned surgery will also remain at Epsom.
The plans for the new hospital, which also include a multi-storey car park so patients, staff, and visitors can access services more easily, are a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to enhance healthcare provision in south-west London and Surrey. This allows the Trust to create a truly modern hospital in Sutton, designed and built with patients’ needs in mind, while at the same time, transforming the existing facilities at Epsom and St Helier hospitals.
Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust has launched a new website dedicated to this consultation – www.esthplanning.co.uk – and is encouraging local people to view the proposals and new sketch drawings and complete the online survey to help inform the designs as they develop.
Local people are also invited to join the project team at a series of online events, which have been set on different days at different times in order to be accessible to more people, where they can learn more about the project and ask questions. You can register for a space at the events via the consultation website or by calling our dedicated Freephone number on 0800 307 7969 The webinars will take place at:
- 6pm-7.30pm, Thursday 17 June
- 10am-11.30am, Saturday 19 June
- 11.30am-1pm, Wednesday 23 June.
Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust will be developing the plans over the next few months before sharing how they have developed following feedback from the local community later in the summer. This follows a period of public engagement and public consultation run by the Improving Healthcare Together programme, which concluded in July 2020.
For more information on our proposal, please see the brochure and flyer below.
