Hospital secured by £30m revamp (From The Northern Echo)

Darlington Memorial Hospital's future secured

8:21am Monday 22nd November 2010 in NHS Darlington and County Durham By Barry Nelson, Health Editor

A MASSIVE £30m rebuilding project that will secure the future of one of the region’s best known hospitals is making good progress.

A new £25m eco-friendly energy centre is taking shape at Darlington Memorial Hospital.

At the same time, work is nearing completion on a £5m eight-bed intensive care unit, which will give the hospital greater capacity to take patients with life-threatening conditions or injuries.

The ultra-modern energy centre will house a combined heating and power system that will provide all of the hospital’s heating requirements, as well as generating surplus electricity that can be sold back to the National Grid.

The cleaner technology will also reduce the amount of carbon produced by the hospital.

When it finally opens in 2012, the unit will be equipped with two low-energy hot water heating boilers, two By Barry Nelson Health Editor barry.nelson@nne.co.uk steam-generating boilers and three large stand-by generators.

As part of the £25m infrastructure investment, all of the piping and cabling is being replaced throughout the hospital.

To ensure a smooth switchover the new piping is “piggybacking”

on top of the existing infrastructure. This has involved doubling the height of the plant on the roof of the hospital’s main tower block.

Bill Headley, director of programmes and facilities, said: “Much of the hospital dates from the Seventies. You expect to get about 30 years from services such as engineering pipes and cable, but it is now coming to the end of its working life.”

Mr Headley said that the investment – which will total more than £30m – was “a vote of confidence in the hospital for years to come”. As part of the revamp, the old boiler house will be demolished and the site used for other purposes.

The intensive treatment unit (ITU) is being constructed in an unused ward area next to the existing high dependency unit.

The new facility will have two extra beds compared with the old unit, and will have six large single-bedded rooms and two two-bedded treatment areas.

It is expected the unit will “go live” around the turn of the year.

“There is much more space in the new ITU. When we open the new unit we will simply transfer staff and equipment across the building to the new site,” said Mr Headley.

“The single rooms will be better in terms of infection control,” he added