A planning application for the new Leighton Hospital should be submitted by April next year with the aim of construction starting at the end of 2026.
Chris Knight, programme director at Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Trust, said the new building would be the size of about 15 football pitches and be sited on land which had been bought next to the existing hospital.
“We will build a new hospital and we will demolish the existing running facility,” Mr Knight told members of Cheshire East Council’s scrutiny committee.
“And longer term, we have the expectation to be developing a neighbourhood campus.
“So, we are not going to be selling that land for residential, we’re going to be utilising that with partner organisations for other health-related services.”
The new hospital will have an extra 50 beds, taking the number to 600.
Mr Knight told councillors: “We will be the most digitally advanced hospital within the UK when we have been completed and we see that as a way of trying to attract staff.”
But he stressed patients did not have to be digitally enabled to benefit from digital care.
Patients will all be in single en-suite rooms.
Mr Knight said: “We have an ability, through video technology and also pressure pads in the floor, to be able to know when a patient needs assistance.
“There’s a really strong body of evidence that’s coming out at the moment around single rooms and how falls can be managed in that space and, through the use of digital there’s certain examples, Harrogate being one, whereby they’ve saved themselves £57,000 a year just in one ward by having remote monitoring in that space for single rooms.”
He said there would be a significant change for out-patients and no waiting room as at present.
“You can check in on a smartphone, or we will have some volunteers helping you check in when you arrive, and then you’ll be called to a room or asked to wait outside that room when the clinician is ready to see you.”
Several councillors expressed concern about patients feeling isolated in single rooms, but they were told shared spaces would be available on the wards.
Cllr Judy Snowball (Macclesfield, Lab) said while remote monitoring of single rooms could be useful ‘it might be intrusive, or it might worry patients it would be intrusive’.
Mr Knight said the single room would be glass fronted and could be seen into from the corridor but could be shut down from inside the room.
Monitoring would be a patient’s choice.
Cllr Heather Seddon (Congleton, Lab) asked how services would continue during the transition period.
Mr Knight said: “There won’t be any impact on services during the construction process.”
He added: “What I’ve got to do is minimize that sort of transition time, because ultimately you can’t be running two hospitals.
“So the thinking at the moment is that we will be moving over the space for about a fortnight.
“We are literally moving from an old hospital into a new one.”
(Story by Belinda Ryan, local democracy reporter)
They’ve already built the car park 😂 it’s going to run as a park n ride operation from the town centre. Only in CEC 🤷🏻♂️🤡🤡🤡
Only an extra 50 beds seems to be a little short sighted. Based on the current daily log jam at Leighton, wait for beds, patients on trollies in corridors, the extra capacity needs to be at least double the proposal.
Hope we can see the proposed layout before planning is sought. Car parking has been regularly raised as a problem so perhaps the design should include a multi storey car park/s. This will leave some land, available for expansion as and and when needed in the future.