World- class heart hospital set for £1billion sell- off

A WORLD-leading hospital recently ‘saved’ by NHS bosses is being lined up for a billion pound sale to make way for luxury flats.

Last Thursday health chiefs said the Royal Brompton in London could continue performing congenital heart surgery – lifting a threat it had been under for years.

But plans have now emerged showing the Brompton’s board wants to shift the specialist heart and lung centre from its five-acre Chelsea site – which is thought to be worth over £1 billion. They aim to use the proceeds to construct a purpose-built centre next to St Thomas’ Hospital, just south of the Thames opposite Parliament.

Bosses at the two NHS trusts behind the collaboration believe the new heart and lung centre would be better for patients – and better value. It is understood the move would take place in the late 2020s. But former Health Minister Lord Darzi last night warned the move would consign the Royal Brompton to a ‘slow death’. Any attempt to move it would destroy ‘one of the jewels in the crown of the NHS’, he said.

Moving the 176-year-old hospital would be ‘an act of wanton destruction’, he argued.

Professor Jonathan Weber, dean of medicine at nearby Imperial College, added: ‘To move it would be spectacularly disruptive.’ The plan emerged last month when the trusts running the Royal Brompton and St Thomas’ said they wanted to build ‘a global powerhouse for heart and lung medicine’. They avoided saying it would involve a wholesale move from Chelsea.

Last Thursday NHS England gave the proposal its backing, making clear the Royal Brompton could only continue offering congenital heart services in Chelsea as an interim measure.

The Royal Brompton confirmed the new centre would involve selling the Chelsea site and moving all its services.