Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital
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Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital
Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Arthur South Day Procedure Unit entrance
Location
Place Norwich Norfolk, England, (UK)
Organisation
Care System Unknown
Hospital Type Teaching
Affiliated University University of East Anglia
Services
Emergency Dept. Yes Accident & Emergency
Beds 987
Speciality Neonatal Intensive Care, Foetal Medicine, Orthopaedics, Cancer, Plastic Surgery, Rheumatology, Ophthalmology, Paediatric Medicine and Surgery
History
Founded 2001
Links
Website Trust Homepage
See also Hospitals in England

The Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital (NNUH) is a National Health Service academic teaching hospital located on the Norwich Research Park off the A11 road and the Watton Road (B1108) on the southern outskirts of Norwich, England.

The university hospital replaced the former Norfolk and Norwich Hospital, which was founded in 1771, and the West Norwich Hospital. The Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital was built under the Private Finance Initiative (PFI), and opened in late 2001: it has 987 acute beds and offers a wide range of NHS acute health services plus private patient facilities. It is one of the largest hospitals in the United Kingdom in terms of in-patient capacity. The hospital is part of the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

NNUH was the first new NHS teaching hospital built in England for more than 30 years and the hospital trust is a joint venture partner in the University of East Anglia School of Medicine, Health Policy and Practice.1 The hospital is a teaching centre for nurses (adult and children's), midwives, doctors, therapists and operating department practitioners.

Contents

Construction

On January 11, 1998, Prime Minister Tony Blair announced the go-ahead for the construction of a £214 million, 809 bed, new hospital in a broadcast from Tokyo on the BBC's Breakfast with Frost show. 2 Site work started the following day (January 12, 1998). The project was the first large PFI hospital scheme in the NHS. In July 2000 approval was given to extend the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital with a second phase that included an additional 144 beds and took the project cost to a reported £229 million. The Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust pays the private PFI Octagon consortium in the region of £41 million a year 3. In 2004, the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants assessed the actual costs at £1.16 billion, or around five times the initial cost of £229 million.

Project team:4

The hospital was completed in August 2001, five months ahead of schedule, and on budget4. The hospital won the Building Better Healthcare Award 5 for Best Designed Hospital in September 2002. The Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital was also highly commended in the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment Prime Minister's Better Public Building Award in 2002 6.

Controversy

The controversial Private Finance Initiative was first introduced to the public sector under the Conservative government of John Major and the contract for NNUH, one of the first PFI hospitals, was signed in 1996. The level of subsequent potential risks and costs borne by the public sector was thought by some critics of the deal to be unacceptably high. In 2006 Edward Leigh, Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) and chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, appropriated a famous Edward Heath quote (originally used with reference to Tiny Rowland of Lonhro International7) to describe the Department of Health's approach to a refinancing deal for the NNUH PFI:

"It is hard to escape the conclusion that the public sector staff managing the project were not up to the rough and tumble of negotiating refinancing proposals with the private sector ... The unacceptable face of capitalism."8

The hospital neighbours the constituency of South Norfolk MP Richard Bacon, also a member of the Public Accounts Committee. Mr. Bacon wrote about the financing of the hospital on his website; "The Department of Health would not allow the hospital to include a refinancing clause in the original contract. This meant the hospital had no right to receive any proceeds from the refinancing at all, let alone the 29% share it eventually secured. And that right was only obtained by taking on huge extra potential liabilities."9

In 2006/07, the trust projected a savings target of £14.8 million but recorded a surplus of £867,000 by the end of the same financial year.10. In 2007, the Audit Commission's "Review of the NHS financial year 2006/07" reported that the trust was delivering the best financial management of any NHS Trust in the country11

In 2006, the Public Accounts Committee released report into the PFI refinancing conducted by the private Octagon Healthcare consortium involved in building the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital of "lining investors' pockets" and putting the trust at increased financial risk. The report noted that the consortium was receiving an over 80 million pound windfall from the deal, and the National Audit Office said that the windfall was the third it had uncovered after complaints from MPs and the public12.

People and NNUH

Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital from the air

The Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital has been visited by a number of notable people in public life;

- September 1998, Secretary of State for Health Frank Dobson unveiled a plaque marking foundation work on the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital13
- September 2001, Health Minister Lord Hunt attended the handover ceremony where the keys to the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital were given to the trust by the builders 14
- May 2002, Prime Minister Tony Blair visited the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital and was shown a pioneering Radiology digital imaging system and visited the Coronary Care Unit15
- December 2002, food critic and TV presenter Loyd Grossman visited the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital to raise awareness of the importance of good hospital food 16
- December 2002, Actor Chris Rankin, who plays Percy Weasley in the Harry Potter films, visited the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital’s children’s ward to help spread the hand hygiene message.17
- January 2003, Norway's ambassador to the UK, Tarald Brautaset, visited the medical school complex at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital in a visit marking links with the county and the Trondheim area of Norway. 18
- September 2003 National cancer director Professor Mike Richards formally opened the £20 million Colney Centre for Oncology and Haematology patients at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital.19
- February 2004, The Queen formally opened the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, visiting Medicine for the Elderly patients and staff on Holt ward and meeting staff in the Radiology department20
- March 2004, President of the Royal College of Physicians Professor Dame Carol Black visited the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital's pioneering Emergency Assessment Unit 21
- May 2004, Health Minister Rosie Winterton visited patients and staff in the hospital's Critical Care Complex and Emergency Assessment Unit22
- February 2006, President of the Royal College of Radiologists Professor Janet Husband formally opened the Norwich Radiology Academy in the Cotman Centre 23
- May 2006, the Department of Health's Chief Medical Officer Sir Liam Donaldson visited the Norwich Radiology Academy to meet the radiology academy team and trainees 24
- June 2006, Secretary of State for Health Patricia Hewitt visited the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital to meet staff and union representatives
- June 2007, Journalist and TV presenter Esther Rantzen visited the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital to promote the use of the Liverpool Care of the Dying Pathway for terminal patients 25
- July 2007, Actors Stephen Fry and Richard Briers took part in location filming for the second series of Kingdom (ITV) on Brundall ward, which was closed at the time for refurbishment, at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital 26
- November 2007, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev Dr Rowan Williams, visited the hospital's Chaplaincy team and the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit 27

References

  1. ^ A New Era in Medicine, Univ. of East Anglia
  2. ^ Blair to take welfare message on tour, BBC News
  3. ^ Private Finance Initiative - Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital
  4. ^ a b CABE
  5. ^ Norfolk hospital gets new chief, BBC News
  6. ^ Better Public Building Award finalists, 2002
  7. ^ The Independent
  8. ^ Monbiot
  9. ^ Richard Bacon
  10. ^ Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital
  11. ^ Audit Commission
  12. ^ Consortium condemned over pounds 100m windfall profit from NHS, The Independent newspaper, (London), May 3, 2006
  13. ^ Norwich Evening News, p6, September 15, 1998
  14. ^ Press release
  15. ^ Press release
  16. ^ BBC News
  17. ^ Press release
  18. ^ Press release
  19. ^ BBC News
  20. ^ BBC News
  21. ^ Press release
  22. ^ Press release
  23. ^ Press release
  24. ^ Department of Health
  25. ^ Press release
  26. ^ Press release
  27. ^ Eastern Daily Press

External links

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