The Joint Health and Overview Scrutiny Committee (Frimley Park Hospital) of Surrey Council met to discuss the Frimley Park New Hospital Programme. The Committee agreed to the Terms of Reference for the project and received a presentation on the progress made so far.

Frimley Park New Hospital Programme

The Committee heard from officers of Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust about the work being done on the Frimley Park New Hospital Programme.

The current Frimley Park Hospital building, much of which is made of RAAC, is in a poor state of repair.

64% of Frimley Park Hospital was constructed of RAAC, which was first discovered in 2012 and was widespread throughout the hospital.

The Trust has already spent nearly £30 million on urgent repairs and safety measures to keep the hospital open, and expects to have to close the site by 2030.

The new hospital building will be approximately twice the size of the current hospital in order to address the needs of the growing local population, and to provide enough space for all rooms to be single rooms.

The expectation for the new hospital was that it would be roughly twice the size of the current hospital, partly due to the need for more beds and partly a desire to have 100% single rooms in the new hospital, which was the new national design standard for new hospitals.

The Trust believes that approximately 1,150 beds will be needed across the system by 2041/42, and that 100 more beds than are currently available will be needed at the new hospital site. The Trust acknowledged that this may seem like a low figure, but explained that new ways of working and the increasing use of technology may mean that fewer beds are needed than would traditionally have been the case.

The Committee heard about the Hospital 2.0 programme, and how it will affect the design and construction of the new hospital building.

The new hospital will be an all-electric building which will place a significant demand on the electricity network. The Trust assured the Committee that it was in discussions with utilities providers to ensure that the network will be able to meet the new hospital's energy needs.

The Committee discussed how patient and staff transport to the new hospital would be affected by the choice of site. In a public consultation on the new hospital, access by car was seen as a high priority by respondents. Parking provision will be a significant consideration when designing the new site, but the precise details have not yet been determined.

Site selection

The Trust is currently considering a number of possible sites for the new hospital building. Sites being considered must be at least 20 acres in size, and must not be in the green belt or other protected areas. The Trust is aiming to have secured an option to buy its preferred site by the end of Summer 2024.

The programme team anticipated that it would expect to secure an option to buy the preferred site towards the end of Summer 2024.

A public consultation has already taken place on the criteria that should be used to determine the site of the new hospital. The Committee heard from the Trust about how the responses to the consultation had shaped its plans.