New Papworth Hospital

Papworth is the UK’s largest specialist cardiothoracic Hospital. Our services include cardiology, respiratory medicine, and cardiothoracic surgery and we are the country’s main heart and lung transplant centre. We serve over three million people in the East of England however the specialist nature of much of our work means that patients from all over the UK come to Papworth for their treatment.

At Papworth we have an extraordinary commitment to delivering the highest levels of clinical quality and providing the best standards of personalised care possible to our patients.

Performing the UK’s first successful heart transplant in 1979 and pioneering the first transplant of a “beating heart” in 2006, Papworth Hospital has established global renown as a clinical and research centre of excellence. We also have one of the UK’s leading Sleep Clinics which was featured recently in an 8-part BBC documentary.

To meet the increasing needs and growing demand for its services, Papworth is looking to build a brand-new 290 bed purpose-built hospital on an 8-acre site at the Cambridge Biomedical Campus at an estimated cost £165 million.

The services at Papworth Hospital are currently provided on a cramped site of buildings, many of which were not designed for the delivery of modern healthcare, and this is threatening to compromise the high standards and patient outcomes for which the hospital is renowned.

In October 2005 Papworth’s Board of Directors and the lead Primary Care Trusts decided that the best option for the provision of care for patients of Papworth Hospital and for research into heart and lung diseases was to move to a site adjacent to Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (Addenbrooke's Hospital) and the University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus.

Cambridge Biomedical Campus Site

There were a number of factors that contributed to the decision to relocate to Cambridge.

• An ageing patient population
• The development of new research programmes
• The development of services

In addition, the public consultation carried out from June-September 2005 confirmed that the preferred option for the redevelopment of Papworth Hospital was to move to the Cambridge Biomedical Campus adjacent to Addenbrooke’s Hospital and the Clinical School rather than redevelop the existing Papworth Everard site.

Status update – November 2009

Work is continuing on the planned relocation of Papworth Hospital to a site adjacent to Addenbrooke’s Hospital and the University School of Clinical Medicine on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus.

Outline Planning Consent has been granted by Cambridge City Council for the development of the Cambridge Biomedical Campus which includes the new 290 bed purpose-built Papworth hospital on an eight-acre site.

While the granting of planning consent has taken longer than anticipated, this should now ease the way for the Department of Health to approve the Business Case for the development of the new Papworth Hospital enabling the Trust to advertise in the European Journal for Private Finance Initiative (PFI) consortia to bid for the project.

To meet the increasing needs and growing demand for its services, Papworth is looking to build a brand new 290 bed purpose-built hospital on an 8-acre site at the Cambridge Biomedical Campus. The estimated cost of the building and the services is approximately £165 million. It is estimated that construction work on the new hospital will start within two years following the necessary step of advertising the project in the European Journal. It will take approximately five years until the new hospital opens its doors. This process involves two years to finalise the contract with the selected PFI partner and a further three years for construction and commissioning.

Read the Frequently Asked Questions that are commonly being asked by staff, patients and outside agencies.

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Contact us

Your views and opinions are welcomed throughout the project. Please email the project team on: newpapworth@papworth.nhs.uk.