Campus plans for George Eliot stall as funding fails

Hospital still committed to scheme which is ‘paused’

INNOVATIVE ‘health and wellbeing campus’ plans at Nuneaton’s hospital have hit a stumbling block.

It was revealed at a George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust board meeting that the plans, which would see a number of key organisations set up home on the sprawling hospital site, have been ‘paused’. This is because it cannot currently secure a ‘strategic estates partner’ to help fund the project.

Duncan Cooper, who is chairing the campus plans committee, made the revelation at a George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust Board meeting.

“The key issue we face is the funding that we were expecting to go to isn’t available to us and the pace we have all talked about, as I am sure we would have all liked to have put a spade in the ground in January, is now unlikely to happen. It is right that we now pause, and make some decisions about masterplanning some of the individual projects, I would not expect any significance coming back here (to the board) for three months.”

A spokesperson for the Trust said that the hospital is still ‘fully committed’ to the campus plans, which have been described as an ‘integral element of its future strategy’.

“The Trust had been planning to procure a Strategic Estates Partner to help support the development of the Health and Wellbeing Campus. However, a national review of this approach for non-foundation Trusts is currently underway and consequently we are not able to progress the development of the campus through this route at the present time.

“We will be following the review closely to ensure we are in a position to take advantage of any national programmes as they become available.

“Meanwhile, the Trust is continuing to mature its development plans and evaluating potential alternative methods of developing and delivering the campus.

“We are also working closely with our strategic partners to progress some of the key opportunities which are not reliant on the delivery route.”