Cambridge Children’s Hospital milestone as Bouygues UK appointed to build pioneering facility

A milestone has been reached in the Cambridge Children’s Hospital project, with the appointment of Bouygues UK as construction partner - and it is hoped it could begin building within 18 months.

Government ministers approved the outline business case in August 2024 and the project team is now developing the full business case and working with Bouygues UK on a construction timeline. The project team has previously indicated that it hopes the hospital will open in 2029.

The five-storey, 35,000 sq m facility will be built on a greenfield site opposite the Rosie Hospital on Cambridge Biomedical Campus and will be the first specialist children’s hospital for the East of England, which is the only region of the UK without one.

It is expected to redefine hospital care for children and young people by integrating physical and mental healthcare services under one roof, combined with leading life science research.

Matt Allen, director of new hospital construction at Cambridge University Hospitals, said: “We are delighted to be working with Bouygues UK. This is a major milestone in the journey to deliver Cambridge Children’s Hospital.

“Bouygues UK is a first-class contractor with proven expertise in building and delivering excellent healthcare infrastructure within a collaborative environment. This makes them an ideal construction partner to deliver such an important project.

“Together we can now get straight down to work in finalising our design and plans and ensuring best value for money under an initial pre-construction services agreement.”

Over six floors, the hospital will feature 108 inpatient beds, 16 paediatric intensive care beds, 42 day-case beds, seven operating theatres, imaging and diagnostics and a hospital school, along with an embedded 5,000 sq m research institute.

University of Cambridge researchers will be brought together with clinicians from Cambridge University Hospitals and Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust (CPFT) to create a “collaborative and multi-disciplinary” hospital.

And by treating mind and body as one - an approach the project team describes as caring ‘for the whole child’ - the hospital will look after patients’ health and well-being, their individual educational needs and their family.

Children, young people, parents and carers are helping to shape the hospital, with the project’s Youth Forum and Young Adult Forum contributing ideas on its design based on their own experiences of attending hospital and using mental health services.

Katie Birditt, chair of the Cambridge Children’s Hospital Youth and Young Adult Forums, said: “I have been involved in the design journey for a while now and it’s amazing to see this hospital finally becoming reality. Knowing that there will be a place built just for children and young people - where mental and physical health are treated together - fills me with hope. I’m really proud to be part of something that’s going to help so many families in the future.”

The regional facility will focus on the prevention and early diagnosis of diseases and the clinical teams also plan to use new technologies for remote consultations and smart monitoring, as well as taking expertise into communities through outreach clinics, or in facilities closer to where families live across the East of England.

Children and young people with conditions require more specialist care will be referred to the hospital, which will feature more than 40 specialty, including gastroenterology, oncology, haematology and neurology.

Prof Isobel Heyman, clinical co-lead for mental health for Cambridge Children’s Hospital, said: “This truly is an exciting moment for the project. We are bringing specialist care closer to home so children and families across the East of England will have better, more equitable access to the care they need – with less time away from school, home and community.

“By collaborating with our research and industry partners on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, we will develop new life science, genomic medicine and data-driven approaches to treat illness earlier and more precisely.

“Many children and young people with mental health conditions also have a physical condition, and vice versa. Cambridge Children’s Hospital will provide a truly holistic approach that currently doesn’t exist in the UK, Europe or anywhere else.”

Four services will continue to be provided elsewhere at national specialist centres - metabolic, renal (kidney), cardiothoracic surgery and ECMO (the life support system that temporarily replaces the function of the lungs).

The selection of Bouygues UK follows its work on more than 400 healthcare facilities globally, including the major new cancer and surgery centre for the University College London Hospital (UCLH) Grafton Way Building, which is a complex 13-storey facility with a state-of-the-art proton beam therapy centre.

The company is currently leading the build of Oriel, a joint initiative between Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology and Moorfields Eye Charity, to build a new integrated eye health centre in Camden and the new Ambulatory Diagnostic Centre at West Middlesex University Hospital.

More locally, the firm recently completed work on the University of Cambridge’s new Cavendish Laboratory, known as the Ray Dolby Centre.

Philippe Bernard, chair and CEO at Bouygues UK said: “We are honoured to lead on the construction of this pioneering project, which embodies our commitment to innovation, sustainability, and building for life.

“We look forward to working closely with all partners to bring this groundbreaking vision to life, setting new standards in healthcare for children."

The hospital has been designed by Hawkins\Brown in partnership with White Arkitekter and Ramboll. Mace Consult is providing project management services on the project with EDGE leading on cost control. The hospital is expected to be built to Passivhaus principles, meaning it will use very little energy for heating and cooling, and contribute zero carbon emissions.

The government committed £100m to the project in 2018.

The Campaign for Cambridge Children’s Hospital, a partnership between Addenbrooke’s Charitable Trust (ACT), Head to Toe Charity and the University of Cambridge (CUDAR) are aiming to raise a further £100million from philanthropy and fundraising.