The collapsed £1bn hospital planned for Paddington, West London, is facing further scrutiny, this time by government spending watchdog the National Audit Office (NAO)

The NAO announced this week it is launching a value for money report into the Paddington Health Campus scheme, which was scrapped in June. This will be the ninth report into the doomed project, which was first proposed in the late 1990s.

The study, to be called Why did the Paddington Health Campus scheme collapse? will also look at: whether the scheme had clearly defined goals and identified constraints; whether the partners behind the project managed the scheme’s goals effectively; and whether the scheme should have been stopped sooner. The NAO report follows concerns raised by local MPs including John Randall, Nick Hurd and David Gauke about the running of the project. The report is expected to be published in early 2006.

An independent review into the scheme released in October found that the project should have been ditched on six separate occasions and also drew up 43 recommendations for trusts embarking on future PFI ventures valued over £500m.

The new report came as architects and QSs are lining up to work on fresh plans to rebuild St Mary’s hospital on the site proposed for the campus.

Source

QS News