Hospitals in Liverpool

[Chris B]

The Planning Officer is suggesting that outline planning permission be granted for the new Royal Liverpool University Hospital -

Report - Click

and from the Echo -

New Royal Liverpool Hospital faces the final hurdle

Mar 11 2008 by Nick Coligan, Liverpool Echo

THE £400m replacement for the Royal Liverpool hospital is finally set to get the go-ahead.

The ambitious project would see the 1970s complex rebuilt in the south-east corner of its city centre site, before the existing buildings are demolished.

Health chiefs say the current hospital has reached the end of its useful life just 30 years after opening and no longer meets the requirements of patients and visitors.

Basic plans for the new Royal are now recommended for approval by town hall planners, although councillors will have the final say next week.

A council report says:

It will take 10 years to rebuild the Royal, starting in January 2011.

More here - http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liver...0252-20603843/

[Babaloo]

Interesting. I have just read the proposals to see if they contained any sketches - they don't. I'm assuming that there are some out there.

[Babaloo]

There is very little info in that document about the hospital's design. I agree with the Liverpool Urban Design and Conservation Advisory Panel's respose as follows:

LUDCAP are concerned that the masterplan appears to developing the new ‘world class’ hospital within a confined part of the existing site and is very dependent upon a phasing strategy. Although the Panel understand that this is an outline application and appreciate the eventual design will be subject to the PFI they stress the need for a coherent layout which take’s account of site’s relationship with the rest of the city and ensures the hospital does not develop as an isolated incongruous block.

In the panel’s view the masterplan is disappointing in that it has not engaged
with the bigger picture concerned; that is a world class hospital in the city centre should seek to make a strong urban statement. This is a key site in the city and key to the image of the city. They consider the hospital does not engage with West Derby Street which is a major link to the Knowledge Quarter.

As the Hospital and the University are two of the largest institutional land masses in the city there is an urgent need to ensure both plans for the Hospital and University are considered tighter together particularly in terms of the treatment of West Derby Street.

[Babaloo]

Hopefully the design will go through several phases and we will end up with something worth having. CABE laments getting rid of something that was built less than 30 years ago instead of rennovating it.

[JUXTAPOL]

I think they could completely rip out and renovate, re clad the main building, but the entire hospital services, even the entire site maybe would need to be held elsewhere to do this.

Is the dental hosp to be included, that does need replacing.

[Chris B]

From the BBC -

Hospital's £400m rebuild approved

The £400m redevelopment of Liverpool's biggest hospital has been given the green light by planners.

The outline approval paves the way for the construction of a new hospital on the Royal Liverpool site, before the old building is demolished.

The hospital's trust said the outline approval from Liverpool City Council would improve future patient care.

Plans also include residents-only car parking for people in the Kensington Fields area, which borders the site.

Under the plans, the new Royal Liverpool will become a specialist centre for cancer treatment and emergency care.

The second site owned by the trust, Broadgreen Hospital, would focus more on planned care, outpatient clinics and rehabilitation centres.

More here - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/m...de/7302773.stm

It's interesting that further down in the article it states that the current hospital will take three years to demolish. Given the rate at which those demolition grapplers work, I was quite surprised it'd take that long to be honest. Thinking about it though, I assume that the grapplers will take out the out-lying buildings, but perhaps the main ward block will have to be a manual job? It appears the new hospital will be in very close proximity to the existing block, meaning implosion is completely out of the question. But perhaps it will also be so very close as to rule out grapplers as well, meaning it will have to be taken out piece-meal, hence the three year timeframe?

[ReelCrazy]

Surely they could implode? When they imploded St Johns House in Bootle, the new building was only about 10 meters away at most.

[Chris B]

In terms of the area into which the building could be dropped (most likely it's own footprint, with a slight tilt away from the new buildings), it's certainly possible. However, the new buildings would be well within the exclusion zone, and would have to be evacuated accordingly. Given it's a hospital were talking about, that means it's nigh on impossible. There are very few reasons to justify evacuating a hospital - fire, flood, a terrorist threat - I doubt a building implosion is among those reasons. As such, I think the NHS would put the blocks on any suggestion of an implosion, and therefore the hospital would have to be taken out using a method where the new buildings could remain in full use at all times.

[T0M]

Also hospitals have lots of nasty stuff in them which needs to be carefully cleared first.

Anyway, this is good news about the Royal.

I saw plans for the proposed new Alder Hey hospital today, they look excellent too!

[eyeam]

Originally Posted by T0M

Also hospitals have lots of nasty stuff in them which needs to be carefully cleared first.

Anyway, this is good news about the Royal.

I saw plans for the proposed new Alder Hey hospital today, they look excellent too!

Any link for that?

[T0M]

Originally Posted by eyeam

Any link for that?

Not yet mate, but as soon as I've got something I'll post it up here.

[nicksanderson]

Is there any indication as to whether this allows for the road widening scheme at the top of the site - wasn't there conflict between the two projects.

I wonder if they're going to use all of the Royal's site as it's quite a big footprint and when this is done land will be quite valuable around here a pretty packet to be made by the trust I think!

[Chris B]

Yep, the Hall Lane Relief Road is going ahead after someone came up with the rather obvious solution of building the road and the hospital side-by-side.

Take a look at this -



Blue Outline - Site of the new hospital.
Black line - New Hall Lane Relief Road (although it will be a bit 'curvier').
Purple Outline - New, modified junction near Archbishop Blanch.
Red Arrows - Current traffic flow up Mount Vernon.
Green Arrows - Current Traffic flow along Hall Lane.
Orange Arrows - New route traffic will take to access Islington from Edge Lane.

Hope that all makes sense.

[Tony Sebo]

I hope that they sell the old hospital buildings, rather than demolish them. Just imagine the mega high density mixed use neighbourhood it would make?

I like most of the buildings on the Royal complex.

[Toadboy]

Relocate Alder Hey to the existing buildings and have an uber hospital, surround the area with homes, support services, hotels etc. London road will wake up.

[del boy]

Relocate Alder Hey to the existing buildings and have an uber hospital, surround the area with homes, support services, hotels etc. London road will wake up.

That would be really good but they made out that the building needed some serious work doing to it and so it would be cheaper and faster to build a new. They also said that the electrics would give out in a few years and that would all need replacing too.

Then again Alder Hey is smaller and they may find it cheaper to refurbish the building rather than start anew. I don't know however whether it would better for them to rebuild as there are so many new advances and changes which were not foreseeable when this hospital was built for example there are a lot of new methods to maximize hygiene to combat MRSA and the likes which this building will not have.

[eyeam]

Originally Posted by Tony Sebo

I hope that they sell the old hospital buildings, rather than demolish them. Just imagine the mega high density mixed use neighbourhood it would make?

I like most of the buildings on the Royal complex.

On the contrary I'll be happy to see them go. Ugly as sin imo.

[Tony Sebo]

!....never mind.

[T0M]

The plan for Alder Hey is similar to the Royal in that they're going to demolish the existing building and start from scratch on a different corner of Springfield Park. The plans involve totally relandscaping the park and intergrating the new hospital into the park (ie, every ward and room looks out over green space etc). Looks excellent.

[Toadboy]

Wasn't there a study that indicated wards/rooms with views gave patients a quicker recovery period?