£10m project to make Portsmouth hospital into health hub

That is the message from Solent NHS Trust after it has revealed plans to refurbish St Mary’s Hospital in Portsmouth.

Thanks to a £10.3m grant from the NHS, Solent can move more of its services to the Milton campus.

Work is due to start in September and be complete about October, 2019.

Sue Long, facilities and premises manager, welcomed the investment and start of the Phase Two project.

She said: ‘This is a really exciting time for St Mary’s Hospital. It is a busy site but it is going to get a lot busier.

‘This government investment shows how crucial this site is to the future of healthcare in Portsmouth.

‘It is so important to a lot of people in the city and we hope to turn it into a health hub once more. The future is looking very exciting.’

The plans include moving the older persons mental health community team, physiotherapy department and out-patient therapies from the Turner Centre at St James’ Hospital to St Mary’s Hospital.

They will be in Block B once it is refurbished.

As part of the proposals, the block will be given a new entrance and reception while one of the floors will be an open plan office for staff.

A new state-of-the-art automated pharmacy service will also be based in Block B.

Block C is having a £700,000 makeover to become a learning and development centre and it will eventually be a research centre.

Sue Harriman, chief executive of Solent, said: ‘This welcome £10.3m injection allows us to complete the second phase of our re-development at St Mary’s Hospital.

‘Along with our partners, we have been turning this site into a key health hub for Portsmouth, catering for a wide range of community care and mental health services.’