Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust bidding for £90m to build mental health centre at Fairfield

The bid includes the potential purchase of around two acres of land from the Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust and making use of buildings no longer required (pictured: Fairfield General Hospital)

Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust is bidding for £90m to build a mental health centre at Fairfield General Hospital in Bury.

The bid includes the potential purchase of around two acres of land from the Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust and making use of buildings no longer required.

Pennine Care says the new centre would allow it to “bring together lots of different services into world-class modern facilities.”

The bid comes as part of a government commitment to build 40 new facilities as part of a £3.7bn health infrastructure plan. Thirty-two schemes have been approved and bids are being accepted for the final eight.

In a statement, Pennine said: “We expect to be competing against a large number of bids from across the country.

“We are hopeful our schemes will be chosen, as they support our ambition to develop new facilities to benefit patients and staff.

“If we are successful, these new developments will offer improved quality of care and recovery rates, care closer to people’s homes (supporting the national target of eliminating out of area placements) and reduced length of stay and readmission rates. 

“It supports our aim of providing a great place to work for existing staff, while also benefiting recruitment and retention. This will reduce reliance on temporary staffing, further saving money and improving quality.”

The trust has also bid a further £130m to build a centre in either Stockport or Tameside, to be known as the South Manchester campus.

Pennine says its expects the Bury scheme to save approximately £13m and £3m from the South Manchester development, mainly from not having to maintain ageing facilities and reducing rent on buildings it doesn’t own.

The statement adds: “We expect to hear the outcome of this first phase later this year, with the chosen eight schemes announced in spring 2022. 

“If we are successful, we will involve our staff, patients and others in further developing our plans. We’ll keep you up to date on our progress.”