What is happening at Calderdale Royal Hospital: Latest on plans for new buildings at Halifax's and Huddersfield's hospitals

Public funding of £196.5 million has been made available to reconfigure hospital services in Huddersfield and Halifax.

A major aim of reconfiguration is ensuring that all elective – planned – care will be based at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary (HRI) and all unplanned care will be at Calderdale Royal Hospital (CRH) in Halifax.

Full business case approval is expected to be sought in a year’s time, with a design and construction partner now appointed to develop final designs for the proposed new buildings and the expectation construction to enable service reconfiguration will be completed by 2029.

Senior Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust officers were updating Calderdale and Kirklees Joint Health Overview Scrutiny Committee on progress.

A new A&E department has been opened at HRI, relocation of the Rainbow Child Development Centre at CRH has released space, investment in a “Pharmacy Robot” is streamlining services to meet demand at CRH, and work on a new multi-story car park at CRH has started.

Re-purposing building work at CRH includes relocating the birth centre and development of a twin maternity theatre, creating two additional theatres to support obstetrics and unplanned emergency care, developing an acute respiratory care unit, developing a new main entrance and increasing plant capacity to power heating, ventilation and power supply.

Also at CRH, new clinical building work has seen Laing O’Rourke appointed as the trust’s design and construction partner.

Planned development there will increase clinical service accommodation at CRH by around 50 per cent to provide a new adults’ emergency department, a children’s emergency department, and additional acute in-patient wards, councillors heard.

Trust director of transformation and partnerships Anna Basford said the intention was to complete the full business case, including finalised designs for new buildings, by autumn 2025 and that would be the document seeking national approval.

In the case of HRI, an aim is to futureproof the hospital, by, as well as new build, re-purposing the best parts of the estate – the best maintained – to ensure longevity.