14 March 2003
An NHS trust this week denied it will have to close a celebrated teaching hospital because of a Private Finance Initiative 'blunder'.
St Mary's Trust said it favoured keeping its Western Eye Hospital open now that it has emerged there will be no room at its planned new home at the Health Campus at the Paddington Basin in central London.
The groundbreaking, privately financed campus is due to include the St Mary's Trust, the Royal Brompton and Harefield Trust and Imperial College London.
An invitation to potential bidders is due to be advertised later this year.
The trust's outline business case, which was approved in 2000, included moving the eye hospital to the new site and selling off the original buildings. Now the trust must find more money if it is to keep the eye hospital open.
The trust told Public Finance that space at the campus was limited by guidance on hospital accommodation, also published in 2000, that insisted on a minimum amounts of space between beds.
'The trusts have been looking at how services can be rearranged on the restricted Basin site,' a St Mary's spokeswoman said.
'The new blueprint – still under discussion but what the trusts will eventually present to prospective private sector bidders – looks at maintaining ophthalmology on the existing Western Eye hospital site.'
However, the future of the eye hospital remains in the balance. The North West London Strategic Health Authority is carrying out its own review of ophthalmology services in the area, though it is understood that keeping the refurbished hospital open is an option under consideration.
PFmar2003
