New site for heart and lung centre planned for 2005

Proposals for a new site for Imperial's world-class heart and lung research, have been backed by NHS officials.

The £300m development will be home to the school of medicine NHLI division. It is scheduled to be developed next to St Mary's Hospital by 2005 and is being recommended by NHS organisations across west London. At the same time, specialist inpatient services for kidney patients will be concentrated at Hammersmith hospital, and also for children, in a new phase two development, at St Mary's.

NHS officials have said that the move is essential to deliver high-quality clinical care.

The new hospital will be financed partly by selling the land in Chelsea and the Harefield site, which is worth around £100m. The remaining £200m will be funded by a private finance initiative allowing a private consortium to build and maintain the new hospital, which will then be leased back to the NHS.

Two of London's most famous heart hospitals, Harefield and the Royal Brompton, will move to this new development.

Sir Magdi Yacoub's team of surgeons are expected to move to the new hospital. "I believe that London, and west London in particular, deserve a big international centre with good facilities," he said.

"If you look ahead to the next 10 to 20 years, with all the expertise that is around in London and among its scientists, the two things have to come together so that we are competitive on a worldwide scale."

He expressed concern that current heart and lung services at Harefield and West Brompton would be starved of resources and would slowly deteriorate as the plans for the redevelopment at Paddington Basin went ahead.

A review of specialist hospital services in West London was one of the major recommendations of the 1998 Turnberg Report into health services in the capital.

If proposals by the NHS organisations known as the West London Partnership Forum are approved following public consultation, they will be developed as an 'outline business case' looking at detailed costings and comparing the option against others. A full public consultation will take place in summer to learn residents' views in west London.

Nigel Crisp, director of the London Regional Office of the NHS executive, said: "If this proposal goes ahead, it will concentrate very high quality services for patients in the heart of west London.

"It is widely recognised that for clinical expertise at this specialist level to flourish, and for high quality research to thrive, there is a need for medical and academic teams to be brought together.

"We have some world class teams in our hospitals and by giving them the best facilities and resources we are sure to improve the outcome for the patients who need this highly expert care."