The Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital opened its doors to the first patients in November 2001. Occupying a 63-acre site close to the University of East Anglia and on the Norwich Research Park, the 989-bed acute hospital is designed to meet local healthcare needs for many years to come.

The development brought together under one roof the work of two old hospitals: the former 231-year old Norfolk and Norwich in the city centre and the former West Norwich Hospital (now the Norwich Community Hospital).

The design of the building ensures flexibility and a streamlined approach to patient care, with wards, treatment centres and outpatients linked according to their clinical specialty. The 26 operating theatres and 27 wards are equipped with the latest high-tech equipment to aid diagnosis and treatment and there are extensive facilities for day surgery and clinical research.

The hospital was built under the private finance initiative (PFI), whereby a private sector consortium builds and maintains the building and leases it back to the NHS. The Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital has been built by Octagon Healthcare, who lease it back to the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital NHS Trust for a period of 60 years.

World-class teaching facilities

The hospital is also a teaching centre, in partnership with the nearby University of East Anglia (UEA), and its location on the Norwich Research Park means that research and development will be a key feature of its work in the future. The medical school built on the UEA campus, - the first in Britain for 31 years - trains up to 110 medical undergraduates each year. When the school is fully operational, some 500 medical students will be training in Norwich.

Planning permission has also been granted for a new nursing and midwifery school to be built on the hospital site, adding to the excellent training and education facilities already available.

The patient areas have been designed to ensure the hospital is flooded with natural light. The windows reach down to the floor in the diamond-shaped ward blocks, allowing patients lying in a bed an uninterrupted view of the Yare valley. In the grounds, the courtyards and gardens have been designed to be therapeutic and restful, decorated with sculptures commissioned with the help of special arts funding. Visitor amenities include attractive restaurants and coffee bars, as well as a 2,800-capacity car park, the biggest in Norfolk.

Cromer and District Hospital

Proposals exist to replace the 1930s-founded Cromer & District Hospital with a new hospital, built on a new green field site and providing a range of different services. Details of the plans are due to be considered by the Strategic Health Authority for Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire in 2004.

The plans, co-ordinated by the North Norfolk Primary Care Trust, in partnership with the NNUH NHS Trust and with the involvement of local people, prefer the option of a new site rather than developing the existing Cromer Hospital because it would be more economical and practical.

Source = Trust Web-site