Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital

The Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital (NNUH) is a National Health Service academic teaching hospital in the Norwich Research Park on the western outskirts of Norwich, England.

Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital
Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Arthur South Day Procedure Unit entrance
Shown in Norfolk
Geography
LocationColney Lane, Norwich, Norfolk, England
Coordinates52.617°N 1.220°E / 52.617; 1.220
Organisation
Care systemNHS England
TypeTeaching
Affiliated universityNorwich Medical School
University of East Anglia
Services
Emergency departmentYes
Beds1237[1]
SpecialityNeonatal Intensive Care, Foetal Medicine, Orthopaedics, Cancer, Plastic Surgery, Rheumatology, Ophthalmology, Paediatric Medicine and Surgery
History
Opened2001
Links
WebsiteNorfolk and Norwich Hospital

The university hospital replaced the former, Norfolk and Norwich Hospital, which was founded in 1771, and the West Norwich Hospital. The Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital was built under the Private Finance Initiative (PFI), and opened in late 2001: it has 1237 acute beds and offers a wide range of NHS acute health services plus private patient facilities. It is one of the largest hospitals in the United Kingdom in terms of in-patient capacity. The hospital is part of the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

NNUH was the first new NHS teaching hospital built in England for more than 30 years and the hospital trust is a joint venture partner with the University of East Anglia.[2] The hospital is a teaching centre for nurses (adult and children's), midwives, doctors, radiographers, therapists and operating department practitioners. It hosts the Norwich GP speciality training scheme.

Construction

On 11 January 1998, Prime Minister Tony Blair announced the go-ahead for the construction of a £214 million, 809 bed, new hospital in a broadcast from Tokyo on the BBC's Breakfast with Frost show.[3] Site work started the following day (12 January 1998). The project was the first large PFI hospital scheme in the NHS. In July 2000 approval was given to extend the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital with a second phase that included an additional 144 beds and took the project cost to £229 million.[4] The Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust pays the private PFI Octagon consortium in the region of £41 million a year.[4] In 2004, the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants assessed the actual costs at £1.16 billion, or around five times the initial cost of £229 million.[4]

Project team:

The hospital was completed in August 2001, five months ahead of schedule, and on budget. The hospital won the Building Better Healthcare Award[5] for Best Designed Hospital in September 2002. The Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital was also highly commended in the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment Prime Minister's Better Public Building Award in 2002.[6]

It is one of a small number of Accident and Emergency departments to benefit from Pearson Lloyd’s redesign - ‘A Better A&E’ - which reduced aggression against hospital staff by 50 per cent. A system of environmental signage provides location-specific information for patients. Screens provide live information about how many cases are being handled and the current status of the A&E department.[7]

Development

A £4.5m radiotherapy cancer treatment unit, the Winterton Unit, at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, was opened by the Duke of Gloucester in May 2014. The unit is set to increase capacity at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital by 25pc.[8]

Controversy

The controversial Private Finance Initiative was first introduced to the public sector under the Conservative government of John Major and the contract for NNUH, one of the first PFI hospitals, was signed in 1996. The level of subsequent potential risks and costs borne by the public sector was thought by some critics of the deal to be unacceptably high. In 2006 Edward Leigh, Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) and chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, appropriated a famous Edward Heath quote (originally used with reference to Tiny Rowland of Lonrho International[9]) to describe the Department of Health's approach to a refinancing deal for the NNUH PFI:

"It is hard to escape the conclusion that the public sector staff managing the project were not up to the rough and tumble of negotiating refinancing proposals with the private sector ... The unacceptable face of capitalism."[10]

The hospital neighbours the constituency of South Norfolk MP Richard Bacon, also a member of the Public Accounts Committee. Mr. Bacon wrote about the financing of the hospital on his website; "The Department of Health would not allow the hospital to include a refinancing clause in the original contract. This meant the hospital had no right to receive any proceeds from the refinancing at all, let alone the 29% share it eventually secured. And that right was only obtained by taking on huge extra potential liabilities."[11]

In 2006/07, the trust projected a savings target of £14.8 million but recorded a surplus of £867,000 by the end of the same financial year.[12] In 2007, the Audit Commission's "Review of the NHS financial year 2006/07" reported that the trust was delivering the best financial management of any NHS Trust in the country[13]

In 2006, the Public Accounts Committee released report into the PFI refinancing conducted by the private Octagon Healthcare consortium, of which Innisfree Ltd owns a quarter, involved in building the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital of "lining investors' pockets" and putting the trust at increased financial risk. The report noted that the consortium was receiving an over £80 million pound windfall from the deal, and the National Audit Office said that the windfall was the third it had uncovered after complaints from MPs and the public.[14] The Consortium lengthened the NHS’s repayment term from 34 to 39 years, but raising their own rate of return from 16 to 60 per cent.[15]

Healthcare associated infections and black alerts

Between 2002 and 2006 the hospital saw 65 patients die from Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), making it one of the ten worst hospitals in the United Kingdom in terms of deaths from the superbug.[16] In 2006 an outbreak of a community-acquired infection Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus Aureus on the neonatal intensive care unit at the hospital, resulted in five babies carrying the organism and possibly contributing to the death of one baby.[17]

The hospital was placed on black alert in November 2007 when it ran out of beds for a time. Ambulances were forced to queue outside the building while non-urgent patients were discharged to free up beds and a major incident emergency plan implemented.[18]

In March 2011 several wards in the hospital were closed as a result of an outbreak of the community infection Norovirus.[19]

In 2011, a Care Quality Commission inspection found that the hospital was in the moderate concern category with regards to nutritional screening.[20] The inspection report stated "People who use the service can be assured that they will be provided with respect, dignity and privacy by the staff during their stay in hospital. However, we observed that some improvements were needed".[21]

In March 2014 the N&N, Norfolk’s biggest hospital, marked two years of being MRSA free.[22]

Performance

In December 2019 the hospital was unable to provide a safe service for patients. Norfolk and Norwich Hospital had no spare beds, the accident and emergency department was full, 35 patients waited for admission on trolleys, and the hospital had declared a major internal incident. The Trust told senior doctors, “We would like you to know that the trust will support you in making difficult decisions that may be the least unsafe decision, and we would appreciate your cooperation over the coming days with this.” Dr Julia Patterson, a spokeswoman for EveryDoctor, which campaigns to improve doctors’ working conditions, said the trust’s message meant “optimal care is unavailable now for some NHS patients [because] ‘the least unsafe option’ is the best we can offer. When hospitals are so full that there are no intensive care beds, no hospital beds at all, and essential operations are being cancelled because there’s simply no one to do the surgery, then every option carries undue risk.”[23]

People and NNUH
Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital from the air

The Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital has been visited by a number of notable people in public life;

  • September 1998, Secretary of State for Health Frank Dobson unveiled a plaque marking foundation work on the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital[24]
  • September 2001, Health Minister Lord Hunt of Kings Heath attended the handover ceremony where the keys to the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital were given to the trust by the builders[25]
  • May 2002, Prime Minister Tony Blair visited the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital and was shown a pioneering Radiology digital imaging system and visited the Coronary Care Unit[26]
  • December 2002, food critic and TV presenter Loyd Grossman visited the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital to raise awareness of the importance of good hospital food[27]
  • December 2002, Actor Chris Rankin, who plays Percy Weasley in the Harry Potter films, visited the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital’s children’s ward to help spread the hand hygiene message.[28]
  • January 2003, Norway's ambassador to the UK, Tarald Brautaset, visited the medical school complex at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital in a visit marking links with the county and the Trondheim area of Norway.[28]
  • September 2003 National cancer director Professor Mike Richards formally opened the £20 million Colney Centre for Oncology and Haematology patients at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital.[29]
  • February 2004, The Queen formally opened the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, visiting Medicine for the Elderly patients and staff on Holt ward and meeting staff in the Radiology department[30]
  • March 2004, President of the Royal College of Physicians Professor Dame Carol Black visited the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital's pioneering Emergency Assessment Unit[31]
  • May 2004, Health Minister Rosie Winterton visited patients and staff in the hospital's Critical Care Complex and Emergency Assessment Unit[32]
  • February 2006, President of the Royal College of Radiologists Professor Janet Husband formally opened the Norwich Radiology Academy in the Cotman Centre[33]
  • May 2006, the Department of Health's Chief Medical Officer Sir Liam Donaldson visited the Norwich Radiology Academy to meet the radiology academy team and trainees[34]
  • June 2006, Secretary of State for Health Patricia Hewitt visited the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital to meet staff and union representatives[35]
  • June 2007, Journalist and TV presenter Esther Rantzen visited the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital to promote the use of the Liverpool Care of the Dying Pathway for terminal patients[36]
  • July 2007, Actors Stephen Fry and Richard Briers took part in location filming for the second series of Kingdom (ITV) at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital[37]
  • November 2007, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev Dr Rowan Williams, visited the hospital's Chaplaincy team and the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit[38]
  • January 2009, Neighbours actress Caitlin Stasey, appearing at the Theatre Royal, Norwich, in the pantomime Snow White, visited the children's ward at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital[39]
  • March 2009, The Bishop of Thetford, the Right Revd David John Atkinson, visited the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital's renal unit. Rhonwen Washford, one of the staff nurses on Langley Ward at the NNUH, had recently been ordained and the Bishop had expressed an interest in her work at the hospital[40]
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See also

References
  1. "Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital". www.cqc.org.uk.
  2. "Press Release Archive - UEA". comm.uea.ac.uk.
  3. Blair to take welfare message on tour, BBC News
  4. "Private Finance Initiative – Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 October 2008.
  5. Norfolk hospital gets new chief, BBC News
  6. "Better Public Building Award finalists, 2002". Archived from the original on 18 December 2007.
  7. "A&E department redesign 'cuts aggression by half'". Design Week. 28 November 2013. Retrieved 13 December 2013.
  8. Gretton, Adam. "Photo gallery: Royal visitor opens new cancer treatment centre at N&N".
  9. The Independent, 12 November 2004, 'The unacceptable face of capitalism'
  10. George Monbiot, 9 May 2006, The Guardian, An Easter Egg Hunt
  11. "Richard Bacon". Archived from the original on 4 October 2007.
  12. "Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital" (PDF).
  13. "Audit Commission - GOV.UK". www.audit-commission.gov.uk.
  14. The Independent, 3 May 2006, Consortium condemned over pounds 100m windfall profit from NHS
  15. Gilligan, Andrew (27 January 2011). "David Metter: Skiing in the Alps, the King of the PFIs who owns 28 hospitals and a motorway". Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 5 October 2014.
  16. Superbugs MRSA and Clostridium difficile killing record numbers of patients, The Telegraph, 2008-05-22. Retrieved 2011-04-23.
  17. Babies infected in neonatal unit, BBC News, 2006-12-22. Retrieved 2011-04-23.
  18. Hospital put on alert as ambulances stack up, The Guardian, 2007-11-22. Retrieved 2011-04-23.
  19. Norovirus outbreak at Norwich hospital, Eastern Daily Press, 2011-03-08. Retrieved 2011-04-23.
  20. Norfolk and Norwich Hospital told to improve elderly patients’ nutrition, Eastern Daily Press 2, 2011-06-30. Retrieved 2011-06-31.
  21. "Care Quality Commission, Dignity and nutrition for older people – Review of compliance". Archived from the original on 1 October 2011.
  22. Gretton, Adam. "Graphic: Praise after three Norfolk hospitals pass two years as MRSA free".
  23. "Doctors told to use 'least unsafe' option in Norwich hospital". The Guardian. 20 December 2019. Retrieved 20 December 2019.
  24. Norwich Evening News, p6, 15 September 1998
  25. "Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust » Keys to new hospital handed over". www.nnuh.nhs.uk.
  26. "Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust » Prime Minister visits NNUH". www.nnuh.nhs.uk.
  27. "BBC NEWS - UK - England - Loyd Grossman goes on the wards". news.bbc.co.uk.
  28. "Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust » Harry Potter star's hygiene message". www.nnuh.nhs.uk.
  29. "BBC NEWS - UK - England - Norfolk - New cancer centre opened". news.bbc.co.uk.
  30. "BBC NEWS - UK - England - Norfolk - Queen to open new hospital". news.bbc.co.uk.
  31. "Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust » Royal College Praises Emergency Assessment Unit". www.nnuh.nhs.uk.
  32. "Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust » Health minister to visit NNUH". www.nnuh.nhs.uk.
  33. "Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust » Official opening of the Norwich Radiology Academy". www.nnuh.nhs.uk.
  34. "Department of Health".
  35. "Nurses' fury at threat to jobs" (PDF). Evening News. 29 June 2006. Retrieved 6 May 2018.
  36. "Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust » Esther Rantzen welcomes new care plan for terminally ill". www.nnuh.nhs.uk.
  37. "Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust » Hospital staff star in TV series Kingdom". www.nnuh.nhs.uk.
  38. "Eastern Daily Press". Archived from the original on 12 November 2007.
  39. "Norwich Evening News".
  40. "Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust » Bishop of Thetford to visit renal patients at NNUH". www.nnuh.nhs.uk.
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