Life-saving transplant centre for Freeman Hospital

Jul 4 2009 by Amy Hunt, The Journal

The building should be finished by December next year and will be ready to accept patients early the following year.

Councillors on the city’s development control committee agreed to grant planning permission for the building, at the south eastern side of the hospital site, facing Melville Grove, which will be equipped with the latest technology and facilities to make Newcastle a transplant capital.

Sir Len said: “Newcastle has significant international standing and this will cement our future as, we believe, the transplant centre of choice for the UK.

“We’re delighted that the planning committee has determined to support and approve this project and we will now endeavour to make rapid progress.

The Freeman already has a world-class reputation for organ transplants, with around 220 performed every year and patients travelling to Newcastle from all over the country for the excellent care the hospital provides.

The new facilities would allow heart and lung, kidney and liver transplants to all be carried out under one roof.

Patient-to-patient kidney donations, which require two next-door operating theatres, could be carried out more easily and without delaying other operations.

As well as operating theatres, intensive care and inpatient and outpatient facilities, the centre would have an education suite comprising of a 100-seat lecture theatre, seminar and meeting rooms, which bosses say would provide a centre of excellence at the hospital.

Planning consent was originally given for a building in the same location to be used for general surgery in 1996, but this was never built. The plans have now been updated to create a unit fit for the 21st century, which would be funded by Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.