Our News

North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust is one of a number of Trusts across the country to have received funding in a national initiative to treat patients more quickly and cut waiting times.

The Trust has been awarded £12.5m to convert office space currently used by administration teams on the fourth floor of the Peterborough City Hospital site into two 36-bed wards – making a total of 72 extra inpatient beds to care for more local people.

Caroline Walker, our Chief Executive Officer, said: “This is great news for our patients as it creates some much-needed extra capacity that will help us ensure people needing an emergency admission will wait less time to be taken to the right ward to receive care.

“We are hugely grateful to our staff for always putting our patients’ needs first and vacating their office spaces to help us create the new wards. We are working closely with these teams to ensure we can re-provide office accommodation on site, as well as adapt to the principles of modern agile working.”

The Trust will soon take delivery of a modular building on its site which will provide temporary office space for some staff to hot-desk. It is also equipping staff to work from home, or one of its two other hospital sites in Huntingdon and Stamford, as part of its agile working plans.

The work to create the new wards is due to start before the end of the year and is expected to take 12 months to complete.

In addition, work has started on a separate modular ward at Peterborough City Hospital as part of a previous capacity-creation initiative, which is due to complete by 31 March 2024 in readiness to receive its first patients in the Spring.

Additional information:

• The Government funding for Peterborough City Hospital is included in a plan announced by Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Rt Hon Steve Barclay MP, on 15 August 2023 to provide 900 new hospital beds across the NHS as part of a £250m funding to help treat patients more quickly and reduce waiting times.