Inquiry: Cancelled IC Teaching Hospital
Nearly a year after the spectacular collapse of plans to build a Superhospital on Paddington basin, the Governmental inquiry into the failure has been published blaming poor leadership and planning. The hospital was to be crucial to the future of Imperial College's medical teaching facilities; completely replacing the Royal Brompton, Harefield, and St Mary's Hospitals, and also housing new research facilities including the National Heart & Lung Institute.
The Paddington Health Campus Scheme was designed in 2000 to replace and upgrade the old and "run-down" NHS hospitals in West London. It was originally projected to cost £300 million and be completed by 2006, but by 2003 the costs ballooned dramatically to over £894 million and the deadline slipped to 2013.
The scheme was administrated by three main organisations: the St Mary's NHS Trust, the Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Trust, and Imperial College. In June 2005, following the final, chaotic abandonment of the plan, the National Audit Office (NAO) launched an independant inquiry. Published last week, the report catalogued the failures of the upper management involved and "the way in which Campus partners (which included IC) organised and carried out the scheme". The report concluded that the main reason for the collapse of the scheme was that the NHS failed to identify and purchase sufficient land for the building work to take place, and criticised the squandering of £15 million.
The cancellation of the Paddington Health Campus comes as a major blow to the College Medical school as they are now forced to remain in hospitals that urgently need upgrades and refurbishment. The College states:
"We are disappointed that despite the considerable efforts of all parties involved...[the project] was unable to go ahead". Upgrading the Royal Brompton and St Mary's hospitals to the required standard will now cost approximately £759 million, and College are putting forward plans to refurbish the National Heart & Lung Institute for 2008 at a cost of £10 million.
