Developer offered land for 2,000 homes in exchange for building new facility for free
Plans for a £460m expansion of hospital services in Kent have taken a step forward with the announcement of a market engagement event due to take place later this month.
The NHS in Kent is currently weighing up two options to increase healthcare capacity at three hospitals in the region.
One would see investment in accident and emergency and other services at William Harvey Hospital in Ashford and at Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Hospital in Margate and a diagnostic and surgery centre at Kent and Canterbury Hospital.
The second option would see a new five-storey facility built at Kent and Canterbury Hospital, with the chosen developer also being offered the chance to purchase an adjacent 37-acre site for future development, together with investment in the existing Canterbury site and changes at Ashford and Margate hospitals.
This scheme was added to the local NHS’s options in 2017 after developer Quinn Estates offered to build the shell of the new hospital building for free. The deal was offered in exchange for permission to build 2,000 homes on the adjacent land.
East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust has now put out a prior information notice alerting the market to a market engagement event on 28 March and pricing part of the second option for the scheme at £170m.
The proposals for the second option include the trust commissioning the fit-out of the new 594,000sq ft build extension, although the shell and core works of the building would be a “donated asset”.
A contract notice for the job is expected to be published on 25 April.
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