§ Mr. Trotterasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will make a statement on the proposal to build an energy-saving hospital in the North-East.
§ Dr. VaughanFor some time the United Kingdom has been one of the world's leaders in advanced hospital design and a joint Government and private sector consortium unveiled plans last year to build the first ever low-energy hospital. We think it possible to construct a hospital that would use less than half the energy of the best modern hospitals now in existence without in any way lessening the standard of care for patients and the working conditions of staff.
Since last year, preparatory work has continued and we have been investigating sites on which to build a demonstration low-energy hospital to show exactly what can be achieved.
Because of the importance of maintaining our lead in this field of technological development, I have now decided that two low-energy hospitals should be built in a continuing programme spread over several years. This will enable differing technologies to be tested, valuable comparisons to be made and allow lessons to be learnt by experience as we proceed. One of the new hospitals, I am pleased to say, will be in the North of England, and the Northern regional health authority will be proceeding to identify a suitable scheme in the Sunderland area. The other will be at Newport, Isle of Wight, and the building will start there in 1983.
Detailed design work is already under way. The cost of the two hospitals will mainly be met by the health authorities concerned out of their normal allocations. We will be providing central design assistance and the EEC is making a contribution towards the cost of the special technological features, and monitoring that will be a necessary part of the demonstration.
I intend these two hospitals to be a showcase for British technology and design expertise, and I am delighted to be able to announce this important step forward.