New Leighton Hospital campus takes significant step towards Healthier Futures

Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has reached a significant milestone in its plans for the development of a new Leighton Hospital campus by purchasing land directly next to the existing hospital site.

The areas of land, which surround the current hospital will become part of the new Leighton site. You can see these marked as areas 1, 2, 3 and 4 on this map.

Ian Moston, Mid Cheshire Hospitals Chief Executive Officer believes this is a moment to truly celebrate:

He said:

“This is a major milestone in the journey to removing our risk from Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (RAAC) and looking towards our new estate. By purchasing this land we can begin to finalise our plans to develop a world-class health and care campus for our local community. A new site that will deliver first-rate care for patients – transforming health outcomes and addressing health inequality for our local population.”

Russ Favager, Board Senior Responsible Officer, Leighton New Hospital Programme and Estates Redevelopment, agrees that the land purchase further cements our commitment to the national programme of New Hospitals.

He said:

“We are fully supportive of the Hospital 2.0 model and are delighted to be a reference site for the development of the standardised approach. We are confident in the huge benefits this approach will bring for our people, our patients and the local health and care system. These benefits will be seen not only in the way health and care is planned and delivered but also in the social value that this significant investment will bring to support the economic, social and environmental wellbeing of our local communities.”

He added:

“To get to this stage is testimony to the collaborative approach to working together across Mid Cheshire Hospitals Trust, our partners, and the national programme team. As we move through the planning and business case development stages we are committed to this partnership approach, continuing the close working with our local health and care partners as well as the national New Hospital Programme Team in order to drive forward with our ambitions to deliver our New Leighton campus by 2030.”

In the future the land will be surrounded by dedicated fencing and the Trust will then be inviting local organisations, schools and charities to be involved, sharing their ambitions for a new hospital through a programme of engagement.

Dr Clare Hammell, the Trust’s Chief Medical Officer and Deputy CEO strongly believes that the plans for the new hospital health and care campus should be developed in partnership with the people and communities that will work and use the services.

She said:

“This is the beginning of our exciting programme of engagement and involvement. By working together to design services we can ensure that our plans transform services for people’s needs today and those of our communities in the future.”

Further details of the plans for the New Leighton Campus will be shared through Mid Cheshire Hospital’s website.

Leighton Hospital, part of the Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, is to be replaced with a state-of-the-art new build following confirmation in May 2023 that it has been included in the Government’s New Hospital Programme.

The five hospitals are Airedale in West Yorkshire, Queen Elizabeth King’s Lynn in Norfolk, Hinchingbrooke in Cambridgeshire, Mid Cheshire Leighton in Cheshire and Frimley Park in Surrey. This is on top of two of the worst affected hospitals - West Suffolk Hospital in Bury St Edmunds and James Paget Hospital in Norfolk.

The NHS has asked the government to prioritise the rebuilding of these hospitals given the risks they pose to patients and staff - the full extent of which has come to light since the New Hospital Programme was first announced in 2020.

Recent detailed structural assessment of the additional five sites has confirmed they are not safe to operate beyond 2030, and so to ensure the hospitals can continue caring for patients they need to be rebuilt as the current propping and risk mitigation cannot be a long-term fix.

The DHSC’s approach to building new hospitals will transform the way we deliver healthcare infrastructure for the NHS by:

• Using standardised design enabling quicker manufacturing and assembly and modern methods of construction to build better and more efficiently.
• Harnessing digital transformation, making the use of the latest technology for the benefit of staff and patients.
• Being sustainable, contributing to net zero carbon across the NHS.
• Incorporating learning from the pandemic and ensuring hospitals can adapt to changing health needs.

Each of the new hospital schemes will deliver brand new, state-of-the-art facilities to ensure world-class provision of healthcare for NHS patients and hospital staff.

Pictured - The areas of land, which surround the current hospital, will become part of the new Leighton site (marked as areas 1, 2, 3 and 4 on this map).