Hospital contractor chosen

Tomorrow's Whitehaven News reports that Laing O'Rourke has won the contract for the rebuild/refurbishment of West Cumberland Hospital in Whitehaven.

Earlier this month I met NHS Trust CEO Carole Heatly with Cllr Yvonne Clarkson, chair of the Copeland council overview and scrutiny committee dealing with health. We had a constructive discussion about a number of issues, and one thing which Yvonne and I were keen to see was that the hospital project went forward as quickly as was compatible with due diligence and getting the rebuild right to deliver a safe and effective service. We were assured that progress was happening to achieve this this and this week's announcements backs up that statement. This his progress on assigning the contract is most welcome.

More details on my hospital campaign blog - see link at right.

Comments

Adam R said…
Oh good, another private firm holds the responsibility for Copeland's health.

So if they cut corners and do a botch job we can hold you personally responsible can we?
9:39 am
Chris Whiteside said…
I've got news for you - the Department of Health does not have an in-house building arm. The only way to get hospitals built is to give the contract to builders.

However, you do need to have a good "client" organisation to make sure that the job is done properly and the taxpayer gets value for money - and the contracts need to be much better designed than many PFI ones such as Carlisle Infirmary.

In this case it is not a PFI contract.
8:16 pm
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nick Herbert on his visit to flood hit areas of Cumbria

Please note that the post below was published more than ten year ago on 21st November 2009 Nick Herbert MP, shadow cabinet member for the Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs, was in Cumbria this morning to see the areas affected by the flooding. He writes on Conservative Home about his visit. Here is an extract. I’ve been in Cumbria today to see the areas affected by the floods. I arrived early in Keswick where I met officials from the Environment Agency. Although the river levels had fallen considerably and homes were no longer flooded, the damage to homes had been done. And the water which had got into houses wasn’t just from the river – it was foul water which had risen from the drains. I talked to fire crews who were pumping flood water back into the river, and discovered that they were from Tyne & Wear and Lancashire. They had been called in at an hours’ notice and had been working on the scene ever since, staying at a local hotel. You cannot fail to be impressed by the...
Read more

Quotes of the day 19th August 2020

Image
"Wise men profit more from fools than fools from wise men; for the wise men shun the mistakes of fools, but fools do not imitate the successes of the wise."  ( Cato the Elder , who lived 234 BC - 149 BC, quoted in "Lives" by Plutarch.) There is a similar saying by Germany's Iron Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck: Benjamin Franklin is supposed to have put the same saying in a more humorous form: "Wise men profit by the mistakes of others, while fools will not learn even from their own blunders." See also this thread on the "Quote Investigator" website . Let us all be wise and learn from the events of the last few days.
Read more

Quote of the day 24th July 2020

I was moved to put the passage below forward as a quote today when I saw a horrible post on twitter from someone writing that it was "excellent" that someone who took a different view from her about Brexit had died. I won't write which way round it was so that all the Remain supporters can assume the post was from a Brexit fanatic welcoming the death of a remainer and all the Leavers can assume it was a Remainiac welcoming one less Brexiteer. There's been plenty of nasty stuff on both sides but if you catch anyone of your own viewpoint  posting something like that who might listen to you, please do call them out on it - and point out that they're giving everyone on your side of the argument a bad name. Anyway, here's the quote from John Donne.
Read more