Health trust provides update on when work may resume on new Berwick Community Hospital
A health trust has acknowledged concerns from residents over the delay to restarting work on the new Berwick Community Hospital as it has said that the resumption is “taking a bit longer than any of us would like”.
But in an open letter, two of Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust’s key directors have sought to reassure people living in the area by speaking of the “huge amount of confidence” they have in the replacement contractor.
And they also revealed that the current plan is to “carry out some work before the Christmas period and the bulk of the work in the new year”.
The delay to the £35million project is due to Merit – the trust’s previous construction partner on the project – going into administration in November.
The replacement contractor, Robertson Construction North East, was appointed earlier this year.
The open letter by Marion Dickson, the trust’s executive director of nursing, midwifery and allied health professionals, and Northumbria Healthcare Facilities Management managing director Damon Kent says: “We appreciate your continued patience and support as we work with our new contractor, Robertson Construction, to identify what needs to be done to help develop the next phase in our programme of work.
“Over the past few months, Robertson has done a number of in-depth surveys and now has a clearer understanding of what the next steps need to be.
“We are still working through exactly what needs to be done to progress the project and this is taking a bit longer than any of us would like. This is not ideal, or a position any of us wanted to be in, but it is important that our hospital is the best it can be for our patients and staff.
“Ensuring we can provide excellent care in a safe, high quality and welcoming hospital building is at the core of all our considerations and current activity.
“We are working closely with the Robertson team and other agencies involved to ensure that things are progressed as quickly as they can be. We understand that people are concerned and frustrated about the delay and we are too.
“The plan is to carry out some work before the Christmas period and the bulk of the work in the new year.
“Once again, we want to reiterate that we really do know the importance of our new hospital to patients, our staff and local communities.
“We have gained a huge amount of confidence working with the Robertson team over the last few months.
“We are hoping to be able to hold a public drop-in information session within the next three months and we will keep you updated on the details of this event.
“The trust continues to explore what additional patient services can be provided from the new community hospital and we continue to look at how some of the new services could be offered before the new facility is opened.”
Some of the units for the new hospital were manufactured in Merit’s Cramlington facility and then subsequently transported to the Berwick site for installation.