The construction of a large three-storey building at Scarborough Hospital has been approved alongside a RAAC-affected building’s demolition.
Scarborough Hospital’s ‘unsafe’ pathology building will be demolished and replaced with a new building following the approval of plans by North Yorkshire Council.
The “increasingly unsafe, inefficient, and unsustainable” building at the hospital serving pathology and ophthalmology services is one of several buildings on the estate affected by reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC).
The replacement building’s ground floor laboratory will operate a 24/7 service and include clinical biochemistry, haematology, blood transfusion, point of care testing, and molecular testing, as well as providing associated office space, and seminar and staff rooms.
The first floor will offer ophthalmology and outpatient services and comprise a series of consultation and treatment rooms, office space, and other ancillary uses. The second floor will provide largely internal plant space with some external plant screening.
A solar panel array will also be installed on the roof of the three-storey, 2,600 square metre building.
No objections were raised by Scarborough Town Council, Yorkshire Water, or the Highway Authority.
The site for the new building is vacant and previously accommodated a construction site compound and prior to its relocation, the helipad.
Council officers said:
“As indicated within the supporting information, no alternative site – namely, York Hospital – can accommodate the relocation of services at this time.”
The demolition of a link bridge connecting the now defunct pathology building to the northern wing of Scarborough Hospital, which forms part of the same scheme, was recently given the go-ahead.
As the new building would enable the decanting of existing hospital services, there would be no increase in staff, patients, visitors, or traffic to the hospital site, the York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust added.
North Yorkshire Council concluded: “The proposal represents a sustainable development providing enhanced health care facilities within the existing hospital estate. The design of the development is satisfactory and would not result in undue harm to surrounding amenities.”
The planning application was approved, subject to conditions, on Friday, December 19.