Date set for work on £75m hospital

The 312-bed centre is to be built on Teesside and will eventually replace the former Victorian-built mental asylum of St Luke's, at Middlesbrough.

The new light and airy buildings will be arranged around courtyards and gardens will be built on a "domestic scale", deliberately designed not to look like a hospital.

A spokesman for the Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Trust told The Northern Echo: "The design is not to look like a hospital, but more like home and quite therapeutic. It has more of a community kind of feel than a hospital."

John Laing was chosen this week to design, build and operate the development off Middlesbrough's Marton Road.

The trust spokesman said St Luke's was outdated, outmoded and no longer appropriate.

"It's a Victorian building, inappropriate and very expensive to maintain," he said.

The development is the cornerstone of the trust's Ad>ance PFI (private finance initiative) modernisation programme of service improvements.

Part of the cleared site will be landscaped and designated a country park, still leaving plenty of space for the 26,700sq metre hospital, much of which is to be assembled in modules away from the site and brought in by road.

John Laing was appointed earlier this week to design and build the development, and the first phase of building work is expected to begin on site in December.

Con Egan, chief executive for the trust, said: "This is great news for the health trust and the people of Teesside. We are delighted to achieve this significant milestone in the development of modern mental health and learning disability services on the St Luke's site."

Peter Ward, director of hospital projects at John Laing, said: "We are delighted to have been chosen to work with the trust in delivering this part of the Ad>ance modernisation programme.

"The design will offer patients a welcoming, non-institutional environment and help the trust set a new standard for modern mental healthcare services."