New facility will transform health services for community
A £40 million investment in new community hospitals for Badenoch and Strathspey, and on Skye, which is being delivered by hub North Scotland on behalf of NHS Highland, has reached a landmark.
The Badenoch and Strathspey Community Hospital in Aviemore has been handed over and is the first new hospital to be built in the Cairngorms National Park.
It has 24-ensuite in-patient bedrooms, 12-consulting treatment rooms, and a minor injuries unit along with dental and x-ray facilities. It will also provide accommodation for the Aviemore GP practice, along with community health and social care teams.
The new hospital will also provide physiotherapy and occupational therapy services, chemotherapy, a midwife service, and a base for the Scottish Ambulance Service. It is due to open to the public at the end of September.
The public have already been given a glimpse of the new facilities with two open days at the Aviemore site on Saturday 18th and Sunday 19th September.
Alongside the new Aviemore hospital, the new Skye hospital will transform health services for their communities.
The Broadford Hospital: Ospadal An `Ath Leathainn on Skye is due to be completed and handed over in late November. It will also have 24-ensuite in-patient beds, a minor injuries emergency department, a midwife-led community maternity unit, an infusion and renal dialysis suite, an imaging department and outpatient services.
The new hospital is located on the shores of Broadford Bay with extensive views to the mainland and next to Broadford Health Centre.
The main contractor for both sites is Balfour Beatty, and the architects were Oberlanders and Skye-based Rural Design. Construction work continued during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown as the two hospitals were designated critical infrastructure work.
There was considerable community benefits created by the project with more than £33 million of work packages going to Scottish Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), 19 new jobs created, three graduate trainees recruited, four new apprenticeships started and 28 existing apprentices working on the two sites.
Peter Ramsay, the project director for hub North Scotland, said: “The pandemic presented a number of challenges for the two sites, but the project partners all worked well together to mitigate these and deliver two top class health facilities which will make a real difference to their communities.”
Photo caption: The Aviemore project team (left to right) – Scott Adams, hub North Scotland, Stuart Danskin and Atholl McKay, both Balfour Beatty, Heather Cameron, NHS Highland and Peter Ramsay, hub North Scotland.