Our new hospital – update on designs
New concept designs for our new Women and Children’s Hospital are being drawn up by our design team that fully adopt the design guidelines set for the New Hospital Programme. These are known as the Hospital 2.0 standards.
We are doing this so that our new hospital aligns with all of the other new hospitals within the New Hospital Programme, and so that we can be part of the system that allows us to join the Alliance framework working with nationally-appointed contractors.
The New Hospital Programme aims to deliver 46 new hospitals across England a total cost of £60 billion over the next 20 years. The Government wants all these new hospitals to adopt centralised and standardised infrastructure models to complete the programme faster and leverage the associated economies of scale, as well as deliver significant digital innovation.
What this means for our new hospital
For us, this is a departure from our original design process but one that we very much welcome. Many will be aware that we have been planning a new Women and Children’s Hospital at the Royal Cornwall Hospital for more than 20 years via various funding streams. Since we were confirmed into Wave 1 of the New Hospital Programme last year, it has been a journey to join forces with other schemes and be part of this seismic programme that will deliver new healthcare infrastructure on a scale never seen before.
Our new hospital, like all the new hospitals, will be designed within standardised grid templates, with repeatable layouts and rooms. It will have 100% single patient rooms, all with ensuite bathrooms. Fixtures and fittings such as doors and bedheads will all be standardised. When it comes to building the new hospital, our contractor, and all the contractors involved nationally, will use modern methods of construction, which are better technically as well as more sustainable.
Where we are now
Our updated concept designs will be ready at the end of August 2026. This is the point at which we will share them with our RCHT colleagues, key stakeholders and patient groups to seek feedback. This will be invaluable for the next phase of design. Already our Operational Cornwall events that took place across schools in March this year have started to feed into design ideas, and we will continue to take all feedback on board.
Additionally, our allocated construction partner will be formally appointed at the end of July so that we can work collaboratively with them as we start the more detailed, technical designs.
We are also continuing to test various digital solutions that could be included in our new hospital when it opens. This includes the second phase of the Silent Hospital which is live now in our antenatal ward, and remote patient monitoring, as well as looking at digitising facilities management and wayfinding.
Enabling schemes on course
Meanwhile, the key “enabling projects” – those projects that have to happen before we can build our new Women and Children’s Hospital – are progressing well.
The Cardiac Department relocation will complete by the end of August. It is moving from the Link Corridor area to the Trelawny Wing outpatient department. This means it will align with other outpatient clinics, and be closer to other cardiac services including the cardiac investigation unit and coronary care unit. Once the service has vacated the south side of the Link Corridor, the building can be demolished, ready for the new pathology unit to be constructed.
Our electrical infrastructure is also being upgraded across the Truro site in readiness for our new hospital. We are working with NGED – National Grid Electricity Distribution – to increase our electrical supply. This will come from its substation in Shortslanesend, a village about 2.5 miles north of the Royal Cornwall Hospital, into the back of our site close to where the new Women and Children’s Hospital will be built. We will also construct a new electrical substation on site. This project will complete before the end of 2027.
The most significant of our enabling schemes is the new microbiology building which will be built at the centre of our Truro site as part of the Pathology relocation project. It will also incorporate new pharmacy services. We have paused advancing the detailed (RIBA 3) designs for this scheme, however, while agreement is sought for our new Women and Children’s Hospital concept (RIBA 2) plans. When this is in place, we can then take both schemes on to the next design stage at the same time and pace.
We look forward to sharing the updated designs at the back end of the summer.