The 21st-century hospital to replace the old infirmary will create 295 full-time equivalent jobs per year during the construction and operational phases, and generate more than £17million to the local economy during the build.

The project is a big part of what the trust’s sustainability agenda is about – refreshing the buildings that staff work in so they’re suitable for patients and workers, innovate where ever possible and help the local economy regenerate.

Planning permission was approved in December 2020, and since then the project team has continued to work around the clock to move to the build phase.

The trust worked in partnership with Northern Archaeological Associates to carry out an archaeological dig at the beginning of the construction project, making some significant finds, some dating back to 1100AD. The hospital site lies within the town walls constructed around 1296, but little is known about life in Berwick before this time. This site is one of the biggest that archaeologists have had the opportunity to work on in Berwick. Walls, pottery, fish bones and what is thought to be stone yards, associated with Low Greens, have been found.

Latest update – July 2024

A significant milestone has been reached in the construction of the new hospital in Berwick.

We are pleased to say that the construction of the hospital is making exciting progress as the components that have built offsite have started to be transported to Berwick.

Built in Merit’s factory in Cramlington, there are a total of 712 pre-assembled modules (PAMs), 52 fully fitted bathrooms PODs and 17 roof PODs that will be fitted into the hospital’s two-storey frame over the next five to six months.

The first two components will make their journey on Tuesday 30 July and will be installed on Wednesday 31 July. The journey has been planned out with meticulous detail to ensure a seamless delivery with minimal disruption to the local community.

There has also been progress with steel frame structure that has started to be installed with composite boards fitted over the top. The next steps for the panneling will be to add finishing layers to provide a good aesthetic.

Since the construction began, the community has been able to see the progress being made week by week and now they will see it transform from the steel frame into a modern hospital.

Residents and stakeholders are invited to find out more about the progress of the construction of Berwick’s new community hospital and the patient services it will offer at a drop-in session being held between 11am and 4pm on Friday August 9 at the William Elder Building 56-58 Castlegate, Berwick-Upon-Tweed, Northumberland, TD15 1JT.

March 2024

We are pleased to give you the latest update in relation to our new hospital in Berwick. Work continues to progress well, and it will soon move into a new phase.

The steel building frame is now complete and made up of 3,500 individual pieces of steel, weighing around 1000 metric tonnes. The next step will be to pour concrete to form the ground floor, first floor and roof areas of the building.

I know we say each phase of work is exciting, but this phase will transform what is currently just a steel frame into the hospital building. This work will begin Thursday, March 28m and will take up to six weeks to complete.

We will start to pour concrete to the roof areas first and this will not need polishing. We will then pour the concrete to form the ground and first floors of the hospital, both of which will need polishing. The ground floor will take the most work as it needs a base layer of concrete, then a layer of thermal insulation and then a top layer of finish concrete.

In total we will spend around 16 days pouring and polishing concrete. For areas that require a polished finish we may need to work through the night to achieve the correct finish. The polishing work will result in some increased noise, and we apologise for any inconvenience in advance.

It is estimated around 5,000 tonnes of concrete will be used. Once poured and polished, the concrete will then take around four weeks to cure. During this time the groundworks around the structure will continue at pace and work will be done to fireproof the steel frame ahead of the external building material being installed.

We are sure that you will agree that to see the hospital move at pace is incredibly exciting for. Seeing stairs was an exciting development, so having floors will really help us to visualise our new community hospital.

A project of this size, in the location that it is, is bound to cause some disruption and we thank everyone for their patience and understanding. We are writing to residents to update them about this phase of work.

Every day we move closer to being able to provide high quality community hospital care in a really lovely environment, which will make a significant difference to both patient and staff experience.

January 2024

Next steps in relation to construction of our new hospital

We are pleased to let you know that work to put up the steel frame of the hospital is progressing very well. To enable us to finish this phase of work we need to demolish the old inpatient ward.

As you may be aware, the old inpatient ward is located behind the houses of Violet Terrace and part of Low Greens.

Work to prepare for the demolition will begin on Wednesday 10 January and will mainly be carried out inside the old inpatient ward.

The demolition work will begin on Monday 22 January, and we anticipate that it will be completed by the end of February. Merit will be carrying out this work Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm, and on Saturdays, between 8am and 1pm.

We try our very best to stick to planned timescales, however, I am sure you will appreciate that sometimes factors like the weather can mean work takes a bit longer than planned.

Piling work next to the old inpatient ward has already been done and we are now installing the pile caps, which will enable us to erect the remainder of the hospital frame from week commencing Monday 22 January.

We will also need to put up some site cabins at the back of Violet Terrace. Due to the hospital frame going up the amount of space that we have on site is reduced and we need to move the cabins that Merit colleagues are currently working from.

Impact on the local community

To enable this work to be carried out, there will be an increased amount of construction traffic accessing the site, including via Well Close. There will also be an increased amount of noise and dust from the site. Emergency vehicle access will be maintained at all times.

We apologise in advance for any disruption and would like to reassure you that everything will be done to keep this to a minimum.

Ensuring we work safely and keep our community safe

We may need to restrict parking for short periods of time on Well Close, to ensure construction traffic can access the site safely. This will mean only closing off one or two parking spaces at a time.

A ’no waiting or loading’ restriction on Brucegate will continue to be in place and will run for the course of the works to ensure safe access for the deliveries and large vehicles to and from site. In addition to this, a number of parking bays on Brucegate continue to be suspended.

Impact on hospital services

The minor injuries unit and out-patients department will remain open as usual during the course of this work.

As a result of the amount of dust caused by the demolition, patients requiring oncology services and those that are immunosuppressed, will receive care at Alnwick Infirmary. All affected patients have been contacted directly.

We have written to residents to let them know about this next phase of work and also appreciate your on-going support in helping us to keep local communities in Berwick updated.

Here is an image taken in the last couple of weeks of the site of our new hospital. I am sure you will agree that it is extremely exciting to see things progressing at pace now.