NHS Grampian has approved the outline business case for two new health facilities worth £163 million in Aberdeen.

The new Baird Family Hospital and ANCHOR Centre will modernise patient care and facilities at the Foresterhill Health Campus.

The schemes, which are part of of NHS Grampian's £300m investment in new or upgraded facilities across the North East, will be built by Graham Construction and work is scheduled to start in spring 2019.

The new Baird Family Hospital will provide maternity, gynaecology, breast screening and breast symptomatic services.  It will also include a neonatal unit, centre for reproductive medicine, an operating theatre suite, Community Maternity Unit (CMU) and research and teaching facilities. Completion is scheduled for 2021.

Elsewhere, the ANCHOR Centre which will provide out-patient and day-patient investigation and treatment services for patients with cancer and for patients with blood and bone marrow disorders, including non-cancerous conditions as well as cancers. In addition, the facility will include an aseptic pharmacy suite and research and teaching facilities, as well as being collocated with the new Radiotherapy Centre which opened in 2013.

The approval of the outline business case for the two facilities will allow the project to be formally considered by the Capital Investment Group, Scottish Government Health and Social Care Directorate later this month.

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Jackie Bremner, Project Director for NHS Grampian, said: "This is a very exciting and important milestone which will allow the project to move one step closer to becoming a reality. It is also the result of 3 years of hard work which has involved hundreds of people including clinical staff, patients, members of the public, designers and construction colleagues.

"It is starting to feel real now - in a year or so these magnificent new facilities, which will benefit patients and their families for many years to come, will have begun to take shape.

"Over the next few months work to develop the detailed design and construction plans with our construction partner GRAHAM Construction and their design team will be completed ready for the main construction programme to commence in the spring of 2019."

Ms Bremner continued: "In advance of the main construction works, which should begin in the spring of 2019, preparatory work to demolish existing buildings, road realignment and a range of service diversions is expected to begin in the autumn."

The services delivered from the Eye Out-patient Department are relocating to refurbished accommodation in Aberdeen Royal Infirmary (ARI) in the summer of 2018. The Foresterhill Health Centre is moving to a new purpose built health centre to the west of the Campus, being developed by hubCo. This facility is due to open in spring.

Elsewhere, the breast screening service moved last month into temporary accommodation in ARI until they move into their new accommodation in the Baird Family Hospital in 2021.

Ms Bremner added: "These moves, along with the development of the Baird Family Hospital and the ANCHOR Centre, will change the Westburn Road face of the Foresterhill Health Campus in Aberdeen and support the delivery of modern, high quality health services for the people of Grampian and the north of Scotland for many years to come."

Gary Holmes, Scottish Managing Director for Graham Construction, said: "We are privileged to be working with NHS Grampian and its stakeholders in the development of the Foresterhill Health Campus and in equipping it to offer the highest quality of care to the region for years to come. This is a major step forward."

(LM)