It’s a £30m high five for hospital

The new building Phase Five will re-house services which are currently in outdated Victorian buildings.

The development which replaces a car park and ward in the middle of the hospital site will house 170 medical beds, including 10 extra.

Also included is a rehabilitation suite for people who have had an operation, a renal dialysis unit, a clinic for day surgery, a dermatology suite and a radiology and electrocardiogram department.

An official handover ceremony will be held next month and treatments will start in May.

The development has been built by private consortium Catalyst Healthcare. The hospital trust will pay the cash back to them over 30 years, plus interest. Work began in 2003.

A competition was held last year to choose a name for the development, but hospital bosses decided to stick with Phase Five as this was already familiar to people. Other extensions to the hospital, in Casterton Avenue, have been named after medical staff who have made a contribution to health care in the town. These included consultant urologist Wilson Hey and Edith Watson, a Burnley GP.

The £30million Phase 5 development was handed over to the trust by Catalyst Healthcare (Burnley Ltd) on Monday.

Jackie Hadwen, head of PFI Projects for the trust, said: "Phase Five will bring together the hospital's care of the elderly and general medical services in a modern self-contained wing with 170 in-patient beds, an outpatients department and a 15-station renal dialysis unit.

"Construction commenced in winter 2003 and the completed building was handed over to the East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust on Monday. There will be an eight week period of commissioning where the trust installs equipment, trains staff and undertakes a number of tests and checks prior to the arrival of the first patients in May.

"This is a contractual hand over and there will be a ceremony to celebrate and mark the occasion next month."