Detailed costs of the controversial hospital plans for Huddersfield and Calderdale have been revealed.
And they show that health bosses are planning to spend £276m on switching services between the two towns.
A new hospital for Huddersfield will cost £55m – £9m more than it will cost to extend Calderdale Royal Infirmary to cope with emergencies if Huddersfield Royal Infirmary loses its A&E unit.
The detailed costs of a controversial hospital shake-up have been released by Huddersfield and Calderdale health bosses.
And they come as campaigners gather in Huddersfield for another chance to show the depth of feeling about the controversial plans.
Many hundreds are expected on Monday evening at the John Smith’s Stadium to hear health chiefs explain why the changes are necessary.
HERE'S a video recap of the last meeting
Under the Right Care Right Time Right Place (RCRTRP) plan, Huddersfield Royal Infirmary (HRI) will be demolished and replaced with a new hospital, which will have an urgent care centre but crucially, no emergency department.
According to the document published by the hospitals trust, the new 120-bed hospital (compared to the 400 beds in current HRI) will cost £55,480,150 to build.
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This includes the urgent care centre (£1.3m), an inpatient ward (£10.9m), operating theatres (£14.4m), restaurant and catering spaces (£2m) and a new main entrance (£925,000).
Emergency care will be centralised at Calderdale Royal Hospital (CRH) which will be expanded from 400 to up to 700 beds, costing £46,503,600.
This includes improvements to the hospital’s emergency department (£9.3m), an intensive care refurbishment (£3m) and an inpatient ward (£23m).
Factoring in work and infrastructure costs – including access roads and utilities – as well as other associated spends, tax and inflation, the project is forecast to cost £276m.
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This includes the £5m which Calderdale and Huddersfield Foundation Trust (CHFT), which manages HRI and CRH, will spend on car parking.
The trust has forecast it will make just £7m from the sale of land.
This means the whole hospitals project, including £15.5m to clear a maintenance backlog, will cost £284m.
Colne Valley MP Jason McCartney, who has been analysing the figures, says it is of grave concern and other options must be explored.
“These plans are not about cutting costs; they would require hundreds of millions of pounds to make it happen.
“There is no guarantee this money will be available and then what happens?
“We could see a continued downgrade of services at Huddersfield. There has been a move of services to Halifax already and that’s because of the Private Finance Initiative demands.”
