A new children's heart centre - Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

We are delighted to share our plans to build a new children’s heart centre, which will form part of The Great North Children’s Hospital.

This state-of-the-art building will become home to children’s heart services, including transplants, and will bring together all of our paediatric specialties on the same site for the first time. This will mean that young patients and their families do not have to travel between the Freeman Hospital and RVI for care and treatment.

The government has previously committed £41.7million to the project, which received planning permission from Newcastle City Council on 4 November 2022, and construction work is scheduled to start in 2023.

The centre is part of our ten-year estates investment programme, which also includes a new day treatment centre at the Freeman Hospital, when opened in September 2022, and the proposed addition of a new specialist hospital building on the RVI site, which will house many adult health services.

Our journey so far

What will be inside the children’s heart centre?

The new centre will have three floors and include inpatient admissions, accommodation to support outpatient activity and more space for surgery.

There will be a direct and enclosed link bridge with the existing Great North Children’s Hospital, making it easier to move between the two buildings.

Other key features include:

Ground and first floors for patients, visitors and staff, with the top floor accommodating equipment and machinery to power, heat and ventilate the building.
The building will have two main parts, separated by an open-plan, glazed main entrance with a reception and small waiting area.
To one side of the entrance will be the outpatients department and access to wards and lifts to intensive care and theatres on the floor above.
There will be an enclosed garden area outside, designed for play, therapy and relaxation.
The new centre will have lots of natural light and space.

Artist’s impression of the proposed children’s heart centre

Why is the building needed?

Having children and young people’s services split between the Freeman Hospital and RVI site is far from ideal. Some of our young patients often need care from teams who are currently based at the two different sites.

These services work better when they are together and creating a new, purpose-built children’s heart centre will provide children and young people with the best possible care in a high quality centre, without having to travel to another hospital site.

Our commitment to sustainability

Sustainability is at the heart of the new centre; this and our other estate improvement projects are an integral part of our Climate Emergency Strategy 2020 – 2025.