Children's hospital unveils ambitious development plans

• Evelina London Children’s Hospital embarks on next phase of development plans to help meet the growing demand for its services
• Key appointments made to progress the expansion of the hospital’s facilities
• Evelina London could host children’s services from Royal Brompton Hospital

Ambitious plans to provide life-changing care for more children and young people at Evelina London Children’s Hospital were announced by Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust today.

The move will create state-of-the-art facilities as Evelina London develops as a comprehensive children’s hospital, able to treat more of the sickest and most complex patients.

Evelina London provides an extensive range of specialist services for children with rare and complex conditions. Uniquely in London, it is co-located with maternity and other adult services at Guy’s and St Thomas’, enabling the Trust to provide care and research from before birth, throughout childhood and into adult life.

Evelina London was the first children’s hospital to be rated outstanding by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), and the expertise of its teams has been widely recognised during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Over the past 10 years, demand for Evelina London’s expert services and family friendly care has grown rapidly, doubling inpatient activity and more than doubling outpatient activity.  A series of new developments are now planned to meet existing and future demand, improving facilities for patients, their families and staff.

The development plans include:

• A new dedicated children’s day surgery centre adjacent to the existing children’s hospital, which will open in 2022 to increase capacity for planned diagnostic and surgical procedures
• A major extension to the existing children’s hospital, providing extra capacity with operating theatres, advanced diagnostics and inpatient floors. This expansion would also enable Evelina London to accommodate services from the Royal Brompton Hospital, should this be determined by NHS Commissioners, following public consultation*
• Relocation of children’s outpatients to a new building on the neighbouring Royal Street site to maximise inpatient capacity within the main hospital buildings.

Dr Ian Abbs, Chief Executive at Guy's and St Thomas', said: “These developments are part of ambitious plans that will benefit patients in south London, south east England and beyond, to create one of the leading comprehensive children’s hospitals in Europe.

“They will also drive clinical innovation by providing space for leading edge research and technology to advance treatments for children and young people.”

Marian Ridley, Director of Evelina London, said: “Since opening our child friendly building in 2005, the number of patients we care for each year has grown significantly.

“Evelina London needs to grow so that we can continue to provide outstanding healthcare for children and young people. These developments will ensure we meet their needs now and in the future as the number of patients needing the specialist care and expertise that our teams provide continues to increase.”

The day surgery centre will be constructed by Morgan Sindall.

Linkcity, the development arm of Bouygues UK, has been appointed as the preferred development partner for the expansion of the existing hospital on the “triangle site” adjacent to the hospital and opposite the Lambeth Palace Library. They will deliver a new ‘shell and core’ building suitable for clinical and non-clinical use in different configurations, as needs change during the life of the building. 

Linkcity’s proposal has been developed with architects Hawkins Brown, engineers Aecom and Ramboll, and planning consultants Montagu Evans.

Architects NBBJ have been selected to design the interior of the building, working with the clinical teams. NBBJ have experience of designing state of the art children’s hospitals across the world.

The plans are part of Guy’s and St Thomas’ ambitious strategy to unlock the value of its sites to deliver greater benefits for patients across south east England, long term sustainability of key clinical academic services and wider benefits for UK PLC.

Working with King’s College London and Guy’s and St Thomas’ Charity, the Trust is establishing a MedTech hub at the St Thomas’ site to bring together health, academic and industry partners to drive research and develop new therapies, treatments and technologies.

Guy’s and St Thomas’ Charity are in advanced stages of planning to redevelop the Royal Street site, opposite St Thomas’ Hospital. We are working closely with them to ensure that the plans support our ability to meet growing demand for our services.

*At its meeting on 30 January 2020 the NHS England Board supported the direction of travel set out in a series of proposals relating to cardio-respiratory services, including moving congenital heart disease (CHD) services from Sydney Street to Westminster Bridge to achieve compliance with the new paediatric CHD service standards, after the necessary estate developments have been completed including expansion of Evelina London.