THE Countess of Chester Hospital has detailed why plans for its new "world class" Women and Children's Building are urgently needed.

Previously we reported on the Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust formally lodging proposals for a new £110 million facility to replace its existing, ageing Women and Children’s Building.

NHS England has supported the plans, with the Trust receiving £110m of a national capital fund to make it possible.

Most of the services currently housed in the existing Women and Children’s Building would move into the new, three-storey 12,210sq m development, including maternity, neonatal, paediatrics and gynaecology, with increased capacity and additional modern rest spaces for patients, families and staff to enjoy.

Now, in planning documents published on Cheshire West and Chester Council's planning portal, it has been revealed that if the new building did not get the go-ahead, the trust would have to spend potentially tens of millions of pounds refurbishing the existing Women and Children's Building, replacing costly infrastructure and roof maintenance.

The planning documents also state that a new multi-storey car park would be proposed on the hospital grounds, as it is planned to site the new Women and Children's Building on an area currently taken by a car park.

Planning consultants Lightwater TPC Limited, on behalf of the hospital trust, said in a planning statement: "The existing Women and Children’s Building is one of the oldest buildings on the general hospital site. It is now over 50 years old and suffering from a range of issues which are making maintenance increasingly expensive and the delivery of a high standard of care challenging.

"Space standards have increased in the intervening years, leading to several spaces being cramped. The building does not have the capacity to accommodate the higher levels of demand expected in future."

The planning consultants added a large part of the roof was made using a lightweight form of concrete which, while used in the roof construction of many buildings between the 1950s and 1980s, had since had a safety alert following a sudden school roof collapse in 2018.

While the existing hospital building roof planks were in a reasonable condition upon inspection, there were also areas of water penetration, and it was recommended that the roof planks in such circumstances should be replaced.

The applicants added: "In addition, the mechanical, electrical, ventilation and medical gas infrastructure within the existing building will need a full refit in the next few years, and if there were any other structural issues then if extensive works to the roof were needed, or if it needed to be replaced, then it is highly likely that those should be addressed at the same time.

"Cumulatively, the cost of these works would run to tens of millions of pounds.

"Even if funding could be found (and there is no certainty it could be, to cover the full cost) then it would be challenging for the Women and Children’s Service to continue to function while the work was undertaken."

The planning consultants also noted that some unrelated services were being housed in the Women and Children's Building currently, such as stroke rehabilitation, an elderly ward, urology and medical photography. To compound this, some bespoke women and children needs are being met elsewhere in the hospital, such as theatre spaces.

It is proposed, therefore, to house all specialist women and children's services under one roof.

As part of the plans, expectant families would use a new ground floor full delivery suite for 11 births, with two obstetric theatres, before moving to a first floor maternity ward with 24 single bedrooms with en-suite bathrooms.

A neonatal unit with up to 16 cots will also be created on the ground floor, relocating the current unit that opened in 2021 after generous contributions from donors to the Countess Charity’s Babygrow Appeal made it possible, in a campaign which was continually backed by the Chester Standard.

The second floor will house a new Children’s Ward, complete with access to overnight accommodation for patients, as well as increased rest facilities for hospital staff.

The applicants stated: "The new Women and Children’s Building will deliver a sustainable modern world class Women and Children’s service at the Countess of Chester Hospital that is integrated with community and primary care services, increased maternity theatre capacity, improved patient experience, and improved staff satisfaction, recruitment and retention."

Once the new Women and Children’s Building is operational then most of the existing Women and Children’s Building would be demolished; all except the recent extension which currently accommodates the specialist neo-natal unit. The space from the demolition would be converted into a public car park, with the number of spaces yet to be determined.

Outline plans for a new multi-storey staff car park are currently proposed for the north of the hospital site, but the consultants state this would form part of a separate, linked application. Again, the number of spaces is yet to be determined.

In the planning statement, Countess of Chester Hospital Trust CEO Dr Susan Gilby said: "Our plans do unfortunately include having to relocate the current Neonatal Unit to a new section of the Women and Children’s Building to ensure continuity of care and access once the development has been completed.

"We are currently carrying out a full options appraisal of how we can best make use of the current Neonatal Unit. One option, which was suggested by the Neonatal team, is to redevelop the unit into a specialist Training and Simulation Unit – both for the Trust’s own staff and practitioners in the wider Cheshire, Merseyside and North Wales regions – to further support the development of a culture of safe, effective and compassionate maternity care for our local communities and across the wider system."

Dr Sara Brigham, clinical lead in obstetrics at the Countess, said: “Providing a new Women’s and Children’s building offers us an exciting opportunity to further enhance the quality of our care and treatment for our local community and the wider region.

"Our current Women and Children’s Building has served our local communities well for so long, but the time is right to move forward and recognise the huge improvements these new plans would bring for patients, families and our teams within the hospital. It’s really exciting to think we could be working in a facility like this in the near future.”