Cambridge Children’s Hospital, the first specialist children’s hospital for the East of England, had its Outline Business Case (OBC) approved in principle in September 2023.
The approval was subject to a capital affordability review by NHS England and the Department for Health and Social Care’s Joint Investment Committee (JIC), which took place on Friday 26 April and resulted in a recommendation to Ministers to endorse the decision. In doing so the Committee has shown further confidence in our plans, and that the hospital will meet the needs of staff and patients across the region. They have also been reassured that we have appropriate funding streams in place to pay for the facility.
This is another important step forward for the hospital. It means we can now continue work to develop the Full Business Case stage of the Project, and begin the detailed process of appointing a contractor to build the hospital.
Cambridge Children’s Hospital will be the first hospital designed to truly provide mental and physical health care together. The revolutionary model offers a national vision of the future of healthcare, based on partnerships between NHS, academia, industry and civil society. By bringing world-leading research into Cambridge Children’s Hospital, we can detect disease early or prevent it altogether, personalise health care and deliver care closer to people’s homes.
Our £100m of government funding was committed in 2018 under the Sustainability and Transformation Partnerships scheme and we have now raised more than half of our £100m target of philanthropy.
An archaeological dig is already underway and new access roads have been installed on the future plot opposite the Rosie Maternity Hospital, on the corner of Robinson Way and Dame Mary Archer Way on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus.
These works are preparing the future hospital site for full construction, expected to start later in 2025.
The Cambridge Children's Hospital project is a partnership between Cambridge University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (CUH), Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust (CPFT), and the University of Cambridge.