THE partners who will build Malvern Community Hospital have signed an agreement to make sure they finish the job.

The meeting in Malvern is the first time all the members of Worcestershire Primary Care Trust’s Malvern Hospital Project Team have met with the team from Interserve Project Services, the construction partner chosen to build the hospital.

The plans for the £19.3 million hospital are with Malvern Hills District Council, which is due to make its planning decision in November.

Representatives from the architects who have designed the hospital and the project managers were also there.

The aim of the meeting was to establish an effective working relationship that will continue throughout the construction of the new 24-bed hospital in Seaford Court, off Worcester Road, Malvern Link. It is hoped that the hospital will open to patients in September 2010.


(How the new hospital is expected to look)

The “partnering statement” outlines the aims to plan, design, construct and commission a flexible, friendly community health environment.

In the agreement, the partners’ promise to work as one organisation, in a true partnership, and be open, honest and responsive throughout the project. Brian Hanford, Malvern Community Hosp-ital’s project director, said: “The meeting was an opportunity for everyone involved in the Malvern Community Hospital project to meet up and identify what will be needed from one another in the coming months, to identify the project issues and also to identify the actions that will assist in the success of the project.

“We have all signed up to the partnering statement and we are now looking forward to working together to create a wonderful, modern and fit-for-purpose hospital facility that the people of Malvern can be proud of for generations.”