HC Deb 27 October 1987 vol 121 cc246-7W
53. Mr. Wheeler

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will make a statement on the St. Mary's hospital development in Paddington.

Mrs. Currie

The new 10-storey building, to be known as Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother wing, has been built at a cost of over £35 million. The wing has a total of 337 beds, 224 of which are allocated to surgical specialties, and when fully open it will provide a broad range of facilities. These include the accident and emergency department, which opened on 4 September and has one of the first computerised patient administration systems in London, the Paddington Green children's unit, eight operating theatres, an intensive care unit, and two day surgery units. Among other departments which form a part of the complex are the radiology department, facilities for the St. Mary's hospital medical school and central catering facilities.

This development is part of the largest health building programme in the history of the NHS. There are currently more than 480 building schemes each costing over £1 million at various stages of planning, design and construction. The total value of the programme is estimated to be over £3 billion and it will provide over 24,000 new hospital beds.