We have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to build a new Airedale General Hospital designed to meet the future needs of all our communities. Building a new hospital is essential because the majority of our current hospital has been built using RAAC, which has a limited lifespan and needs to be completely replaced. A new, state-of-the-art hospital developed with our people, patients, partners and communities will provide a safe, modern environment that’s fit for the future. A hospital that will:
Our new hospital will be shaped by the principles in the new NHS 10-year plan. One key shift set out in the plan is the move from hospital-based to community-based care. The journey towards our new hospital presents us with a perfect opportunity to work with our partners and look at providing more services in our communities. This would mean providing historically hospital-based services such as diagnostics, post-operative care and rehab in neighbourhood settings, with the focus firstly on the areas of greatest need. This will allow us to unlock the potential of a truly joined up health and care system, not only with our own community services, but with our health and care partners across Bradford District and Craven. The journey to our new hospital is underway and we ask everyone to get involved and support us in achieving this fantastic vision for the communities of Airedale.
Read about the stages we need to go through before the new hospital will be built
Read about our plans to get the site ready for the new hospital
Read about our work to design the new hospital and ways you can get involved
Find out about how you can get involved and help to shape our plans
Read our latest newsletters and updates about the new hospital programme
Find out about the work we are doing across Airedale because of the Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (RAAC)
In May 2023 the Trust received the fantastic news that Airedale General Hospital had been accepted onto the national New Hospital Programme.
This is because Airedale General Hospital is among a small number of hospitals in the UK that were built in the late 1960s and is experiencing severe structural problems. It was built with reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) – a lightweight, bubbly form of concrete.
RAAC was found to have a lifespan of 30 years and structural engineers have advised that the hospital should be replaced as soon as possible. We need a new hospital to keep services in Airedale.
A new hospital will have far-reaching benefits for our local community, allowing us to continue to provide vital health care in a safe, modern environment that’s fit for the future, and that will improve patient outcomes and experience.
We have an expected construction start date for the main hospital of 2028. We are still working through the detailed timings with the national New Hospital Programme and are working to get our new hospital built as quickly as possible.
Work is already underway to get our site ready for building and the next step is submitting the planning application, which we will do this summer.
There are five key stages on the journey to a new hospital:
We are currently working on both stages two and three to make sure we can progress work quickly. Find out more here.
A recent national RAAC assessment report found that the repairs undertaken mean the hospital can remain open beyond 2030, but that it still needs to be replaced “as soon as feasibly possible”. There is an incredible amount of work to be done before the new hospital will be ready, but our teams are busy behind the scenes getting everything in place.
A great deal of work took place to look at whether there were suitable alternative locations for a new hospital and all the things that need to go with it, such as sufficient car parking.
Any other available site had to pass many tests to be considered – it needed to:
After applying these tests, and others such as planning restrictions, we did not find any other suitable sites and so will be building on our current site.
We are currently working through the design process with our specialist team of architects and planners. The plans will be based on the health needs of people in the Airedale area and what services they need, now and in the future. The views and feedback of staff, patients and local communities will be a very important part of the design process. The design will also use a national template called ‘Hospital 2.0,’ which is being developed with healthcare professionals, patients and the public.
Hospital 2.0 is a national approach to delivering the hospitals on the New Hospital Programme. There are four high level principles: Standard designs, Modern Methods of Construction (MMC), the ambition to achieve a carbon zero NHS and digital transformation. Modern methods of construction provide new ways of building that are quicker and more flexible, as well as offering greater quality and safety.
Yes, we have had confirmation from the Government that Airedale Hospital is in wave 1 of the national New Hospital Programme, recognising the urgent need to replace the current buildings.
The plans will be based on the health needs of people in the Airedale area and what services they need, now and in the future. We are working with our staff and all our health care partners to look at how we can make the most of having a new hospital, and how this can help us to keep improving services.
As you can appreciate, building a new hospital on the same site as the current hospital will bring some extra challenges as we need to keep our existing services running for our patients. We will be looking in detail at how we can move services into the new hospital to ensure the least disruption to our patients. We will share these plans as they are developed.
Structural work is continuing on the current hospital to keep our patients, staff and visitors safe. An extensive programme of works is being carried out, focusing on the areas worst affected by the RAAC first. However, these buildings will need to be completely replaced so they can’t be part of the new hospital.
This has been an important factor in looking at the best part of the site for the new hospital, so that we can build a new, state-of-the art hospital which is fit for the future and ensure people still get all the services and access to high quality care they need in the meantime.
Services might have to move to different parts of the site, or in very limited cases, to other sites but we will be consulting with those staff and service users affected.
We will need to work through all the available options for the buildings that aren’t constructed of RAAC, but no decisions have been made yet. More information will be shared about this when it is available.
This will be considered in detail and any updates will be shared publicly when more information is available.
Clear and simple wayfinding is one of the things that we will be looking at as our plans progress and will be factored into the new hospital.
Feedback from colleagues, patients, service users and local communities is a vital part of shaping our designs and our planning work. There will be plenty of opportunities for people to share their views and speak to us about what is important to them throughout the process.
To hear more about our plans you can join our mailing list by sending your name, postcode and email address to anhsft.YourNewHospital.nhs.net. Please put the email subject as ‘Mailing list’. Please note that your personal data will only be used for this purpose.
Surveys will be posted on the dedicated web pages here.
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Join Airedale’s community panel to help shape new hospital
