Cambridge Children’s Hospital to open in 2025 as project design team and £100m fundraising campaign confirmed
Cambridge Children’s Hospital could open in 2025, it was confirmed, as the project design team for it was announced.
A fundraising campaign to secure £100million from philanthropists will be launched in spring to help fund the hospital, which already has £100million of public funding committed by the government.
It will be built on Cambridge Biomedical Campus and integrate physical and mental healthcare, alongside academic research.
Led by professional services company Turner & Townsend, the design team will feature a partnership between London-based architects Hawkins\Brown and one of Scadinavia’s leading architecture firms White Arkitekter.
Meanwhile, Ramboll will provide all engineering services and MJ Medical bring international healthcare planning expertise.
Cambridge Children’s, as it will be known, is a partnership between Cambridge University Hospitals (CUH), which runs Addenbrooke’s and the Rosie, and Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust (CPFT), which runs the county’s mental health services, along with the University of Cambridge.
The total cost is expected to be £220million, with £20million raised from land sales.
The partners said: “Embedding genomic and psychological research alongside clinical expertise in physical and mental child health, Cambridge Children’s will be a brand new state-of-the-art hospital designed to take care of the whole child, not just their illness.
“It will be a beacon of biomedical expertise that benefits children and young people across the East of England as well as nationally and internationally.”
The announcement of the project design team follows a competitive tender process that lasted months, and is seen as a milestone in progressing the children’s hospital.
Cambridge MP Daniel Zeichner said: “I welcome the appointment of a design team as the next stage in establishing a world-class children’s facility for the region.
“Clearly this announcement comes at a time of unprecedented pressure on our NHS but doctors in paediatric care have long been pressing for a specialist children’s hospital. This will be good for Cambridge and the health of many young people."
Turner & Townsend will deliver project management, design team management, stakeholder management and cost management services, with the hospital due to open in 2025.
Clinton Green, director of healthcare project management at Turner & Townsend, said: “Cambridge Children’s Hospital will be a world leading facility for healthcare and clinical research and the combined experience of the design team is well matched for the bold ambition of this project. It is a huge privilege to have been appointed and we are looking forward to getting started and working with the entire project team.”
The company earned the thumbs up from 15-year-old Alisha, a member of Cambridge Children’s Network, who was on a panel of young people who met the shortlisted design teams.
Alisha said: “I am really pleased and delighted to hear the news that Turner & Townsend have been chosen as the successful project design team.
“The amazing image they created following our Zoom call with them really shows they listened to our ideas and took on board everything that we think is important. I think they will be really good for Cambridge Children’s Hospital project.”
Alex White, project director for Cambridge Children’s, said: “We are so pleased to welcome Turner & Townsend and their team on board to help us deliver this ambitious project. They bring a team of global leaders in their fields, who will work with us to build a new type of children’s hospital – one which treats the whole child, putting them at the centre of everything we do.”
Meanwhile, Hawkins\Brown architects bring expertise in clinical research and the UK healthcare sector. The company is currently working on designs for the Evelina Hospital in Westminster.
White Arkitekter has global healthcare experience, including work on delivering the Queen Silvia Children’s Hospital in Sweden. It has also been involved in the £250million project to create Oriel, a new home for Moorfields Eye Hospital in London.
Oliver Milton, partner for Hawkins\Brown, said: “Cambridge Children’s Hospital project represents an opportunity to consider a whole new approach to healthcare for young people – focused on the mind as well as the body – with research embedded alongside the clinical facilities. It is strong design team, and working alongside White Arkitekter is a great opportunity to combine their global expertise in healthcare with Hawkins\Brown’s UK track record in healthcare and research buildings.”
The project design team’s first job is to meet with staff at the NHS trusts and university, along with patients, families and carers to involve them in the process of designing and creating the new hospital and its models of care.
It was in 2018 that health secretary Matt Hancock committed £100million of government funding for the project.
Earmarked for land adjacent to Addenbrooke’s and The Rosie hospitals, it will also harness digital health technology to help child patients stay at home or in local general facilities.
Discussing the project with the Cambridge Independent last August, CUH chairman Dr Mike More said: “The case here is that we’re the only region in the country that has no specialist children’s hospital. This will be a regional facility.
“We deal with a lot of patients from Luton and Essex. Many will also go into London. If you’re a child in Norwich and the only place you can go to is Great Ormond Street, it would be a lot better to come to Cambridge.”
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