NHS Lothian has announced the search for a private partner to build a new Royal Hospital for Sick Children at Little France in Edinburgh.

The chosen partner will design, build, maintain and finance the facility.

The development will include a new centre for clinical neurosciences, currently based at the Western General Hospital, and a base for child and adolescent health services from the Royal Edinburgh Hospital. This will remove the need for cross-city transfers.

Bidders will be invited to complete a pre-qualification questionnaire via Public Contracts Scotland and OJEU for the hospital facility; the first to be built under the Non Profit Distributing model.

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The bidders will then be short-listed down to three and will be engaged in competitive discussion from spring 2013.

The preferred bidder will then be announced early in 2014, whereupon design work will be finalised with construction beginning in the summer and an anticipated completion date of 2017.

Susan Goldsmith, Finance Director, NHS Lothian, said: "The benefits of having children’s, maternity and adult services on the same site are well documented and this combined facility will create a centre of excellence at Little France, bringing paediatric care, specialist neonatal care, neurosciences and emergency departments together.

"The proximity to the University facilities will also improve opportunities for partnership working and bring research to the bedside."

Health Secretary Alex Neil added: "I have been clear in the past that investing in our infrastructure is vital to growing our economy and the NHS presents huge opportunities to do this. Not only will it bring benefits to business and more jobs but it also means that patients can be treated in the best possible surroundings."

(IT)