New Cromer Hospital plans to go on public show

A public consultation event is being held in Cromer later this month to allow people to comment on the plans for a new £26 million hospital in the north Norfolk town.

The Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is planning to build a new £26 million hospital in Cromer and is holding a drop-in session where people can meet the architects and construction team and give their views.

The consultation event takes place on Thursday October 23 from 10am to 8pm in the Community Centre (formerly the WI Hall) on Garden Street, Cromer, and representatives from the hospital trust, the designers and the builders will be on hand to explain the plans and answer questions.

The new hospital will replace the original Mill Road hospital which first opened in 1932. The new hospital will be for out-patients, day case operations, extended diagnostic services, dynamic therapy services and minor injuries care and will be completed in 2011.

The £26 million project is subject to a full business case which will come back to the board in mid-2009. The new hospital will include two general anaesthetic operating theatres, an out-patient procedure room and an ophthalmic theatre plus new diagnostic services including a permanent on-site mammography (breast screening) service, a DEXA scanner for osteoporosis diagnosis, as well as facilities for a mobile MRI scanner.

Chairman David Prior said: “As a NHS Foundation Trust we are in the very welcome position of being able to use our new-found financial freedoms to invest money into a long-awaited new hospital for the people of north Norfolk. We believe that local people will benefit from the wider range of services we aim to be able to provide at Cromer from out-patient services, day case surgery, to minor injuries and therapy services”.

In late 2007 a tendering process lead to the appointment of a Mansell construction team, part of the Balfour Beatty Group. The planning application process starts this Autumn, with the full business case going to the Board in mid-2009 and work due to start in the summer of 2009, with completion in 2011.

Sagle Bernstein Legacy – In 2001, the trustees of the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust received an £11.4 million legacy left to Cromer Hospital by the late Sagle Bernstein. Mrs Bernstein was a local resident and her sister had been a patient at Cromer Hospital. The value of the legacy, which is held on deposit, currently stands at £13.2 million.

For more information visit www.nnuh.nhs.uk/page/newcromer