CLINICAL BUILDINGS
regional pathology Centre of Excellence.” Having discussed the broader rationale
for the new building, I asked the Trust Project manager for some examples of the types of pathology it would bring together. “Currently,” she said, “we have Specialist Laboratory Medicine and Transplant Immunology services at St. James’s, while at LGI we have Clinical Immunology, Blood Sciences, and Microbiology, among others. We want to bring all these together; some will benefit from greater automation, and others from sharing of knowledge across services. In all, we expect to transfer over 450-550 staff, but some of our Pathology services – such as those that won’t benefit as greatly from co-location, or are located in newer buildings, like Cellular Pathology and Genomics – will stay in situ on the St James’s site.”
At an official opening last September, Minister of State for Health and Secondary Care, Will Quince, Dame Linda Pollard, and Professor Phil Wood, unveiled a plaque alongside partners from Mid Yorkshire Teaching NHS Trust, Calderdale & Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust, and the West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board.
many of our pathology services into a single, new, purpose-designed building for some time. The anticipated benefits – particularly in terms of faster testing and quicker dissemination of results, and thus more rapid diagnosis and treatment, which can significantly affect outcomes with diseases such as cancer and heart disease – are very much those that Lord Carter highlighted in his 2006 and 2008 reports published under the title Independent Review of NHS Pathology Services in England.” In those, Lord Carter set out a strong case for regional consolidation of pathology services, ‘to improve quality, patient safety and efficiency’. He re-stated the case, and the anticipated benefits, in his 2016 report, Operational Productivity and Performance in English NHS Acute Hospitals: Unwarranted Variations, which led NHS Improvement to ask NHS Trusts to draw up business plans to consolidate services ‘to improve productivity’.
A ‘flagship’ project Emma Storey explained that the scheme to build the new Centre for Laboratory Medicine is also a ‘flagship project’ within the Leeds Teaching Hospitals’ high-profile ‘Building the Leeds Way’ Programme. Returning to the new pathology building, she said: “The Centre for Laboratory Medicine will bring many of the Trust’s pathology services into a single, modern, and efficient facility, and once the Old Medical
School at the LGI is vacated, it will be repurposed as part of plans to use surplus estate there to develop an ‘innovation village’.” (Expected to deliver up to 4,000 new jobs, over 500 new homes, and almost £13 bn in net present value.) Back on the key drivers for consolidating
the region’s pathology services, she said: “By consolidating services and scaling up activity at one central facility, and linking certain specialities, we will be able to share expertise across the services, and create a
Original funding request Emma Storey explained that the initial funding request for the new pathology facility had been submitted to the Sustainability and Transformation Partnership in 2018. She elaborated: “We received some funding then, which kick-started preparation of the Outline Business Case. We then received OBC approval in 2020/2021, and Full Business Case approval in early 2022. Following the completion of a complex set of enabling works, completed separately, BAM commenced construction of the new 6,000 m2
facility in March 2022, and
completed the traditional steel-framed building – to a very high standard – in July 2023.”
Andy Munro explained that
A series of lightwells includes a large central lightwell, running the building’s full height.
54 Health Estate Journal February 2024
right at the project’s outset in 2018, as technical advisor, Mott MacDonald’s team created a Basis of Design document for the new building, and submitted it to the main contractor, BAM. He said: “BAM then brought in its various sub-contractors, with Silcock Leedham as mechanical and electrical engineering consultants, Arup as structural engineer, and ADP as the architect, plus Mott MacDonald as technical advisor for both MEPH and Civil and Structural Engineering.” The new pathology facility has been built on the site of former doctors’ flats and an unused university building, close to the Gledhow Wing, on the north of the St James’s site. Emma Storey explained: “We undertook a comprehensive options appraisal, looking at potential locations here at St James’s, at the LGI, and at other potential sites. This site was available, is on Trust land, and has excellent access to all main routes – a key
Courtesy of Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust
Courtesy of Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust
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