Carillion has reached financial close on the £335m Royal Liverpool University Hospital, which is set become the UK’s largest 100% single-bed hospital.
The main contractor will build the hospital for the Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust and invest £15.5m of its own equity under a private finance initiative, matched by a similar amount from the Scottish Widows Investment Partnership.
Carillion expects to generate around £200m from its investment over the 30-year concession period, also delivering non-clinical support services worth around £100m during that time. The hospital is the 16th in Carillion’s public-private partnership (PPP) portfolio.
Carillion was named preferred bidder for the scheme in May, having beaten off competition from the Horizon consortium, which includes Interserve, John Laing and architect Sheppard Robson.
According to Construction News, the Royal Liverpool project has been hit by several delays since it first went out to market in April 2010, including the government’s year-long PFI review.
Under a reworked funding arrangement, the Trust’s annual PFI payments of £32.5m are expected be less than 6% of its current turnover, one of the lowest levels in the NHS.
The hospital is designed by architects NBBJ and HKS, working as part of the Carillion consortium, alongside engineers Capita and TPS Consult, and M&E contractor Crown House.
It will be built next to an existing hospital to the east of Liverpool city centre, due to be demolished once services have transferred. Work on site is due to start early in 2014, with completion scheduled for 2017.
Once built, Royal Liverpool will be the largest 100% single bedroom hospital in the country with 646 beds, which health experts claim will help dramatically cut patients’ recovery times and rates of infection. It will also include a 40-bed critical care unit, 18 operating theatres and one of the largest emergency departments in the north west.
The hospital will also have an underground car park for patients and visitors, direct access to site by bus, a dedicated cycle centre and 10 electric car charging points.
The project will also pave the way for a Liverpool BioCampus on the site of the existing hospital, which will play a key part in transforming the area and regenerating the Knowledge Quarter of the city.
Royal Liverpool is expected to create the equivalent of 750 full-time jobs and contribute £240m to the local economy. Around 15% of Carillion’s workforce will be sourced from priority wards in Liverpool and 100 apprenticeships will be created. Carillion has committed to source at least 60% of construction materials locally.
