Agenda item

Report attached.

Moorfields officers explained that it was proposed to move Moorfields Eye Hospital from its current site in City Road to a new location in St Pancras in 2026. The current site was felt to be too small and restrictive and could lead to appointments taking the best part of a day to complete. The Institute of Ocular Ophthalmology would move with the hospital to combine with Moorfields on the purpose-built St Pancras site.

A lot of engagement work had taken place during the consultation to date had included how visually impaired people could navigate the new site itself as well as the distance from the nearest transport hubs to the site. 73% of respondents to the consultation had agreed or strongly agreed that the move should take place although this was slightly lower in the North East London area, principally due to concerns over travel times. Travel analysis had however shown only a 3 minutes increase in journey times overall compared to the current site.

The St Pancras site was located close to partner organisation such as the Royal National Institute for the Blind, the Crick Institute and UCL Partners. The proposals would go to joint scrutiny for the North-Central London area on 39 November and a final decision was expected on 19 December.

The private theatres at the Moorfields site were part of a private business owned by the NHS. All profits from the private business were reinvested into the Moorfields NHS Trust. Investments made in private theatres would be recouped by the time of the move.   

It was accepted that the children’s department was in a newer building compared to the rest of the hospital but it was not feasible to leave this on the current site. Many hospital staff worked across both the adults and children’s departments.

The valuation of the City Road site was based on current value and officers accepted that this may change to the effects of Brexit. This would be reflected in the full business case which would be submitted in 2021. Moorfields operated a b=networked model of care covering 30 sites which would not be affected by any move of services based at the main hospital site.

Some 71% of respondents to the consultation survey were current users of the hospital services. Quality assurance for the consultation had been undertaken by the Consultation Institute and the proposals would also be scrutinised by the Mayor of London.

The nearest station to the current site (Old Street) was not step free whilst this would be available at from Kings Cross station for the new hospital location. A group of visually impaired patients had already tested the walking from Kings Cross station to the site and work on the route had also been undertaken with the Royal National Institute for the Blind.

Officers wished to have more bus routes serving the new site and to encourage better signposting to the new hospital both from the station and at street level. Engagement work with Transport for London and London Borough of Camden was already underway on these issues.

A number of alternative sites had been considered but only the St Pancras location had met all critical success factors. The existing City Road site would    

Be put on the market once the full business case had been approved which was expected to be confirmed in late 2020. The new building would be formally completed in spring 2026 though a transition of period of around six months was likely as services moved over to the new site. It was planned to transfer and reuse existing equipment where possible but detailed work on this had not been undertaken as yet.

The bed capacity of six would remain the same at the new site as nearly all current Moorfields treatment was undertaken on a day patient basis. Improvements in technology were also likely to man less overnight stays would be needed. Capacity for outpatients would be increased by the design of the new hospital.

Officers were aware of the risks of overspends in the project or of rises in inflation but the business case would include contingencies for this and this would be challenged as part of the business case process.

It was agreed that a visit to the current hospital site should be arranged for Members in order to scrutinise further the issues faced by the hospital The Committee thanked the attenders for their attendance and noted the overall position.