7 Nov 2007

Interserve, in consortium with John Laing plc and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, has been named as preferred bidder for the £230 million Pembury Hospital scheme in Tunbridge Wells, Kent.  The new 512-bed Pembury Hospital will be the first NHS acute facility with 100 per cent single, en-suite rooms.

Interserve will invest in the region of £5.5 million of equity and subordinated debt in the project and will deliver facilities management (FM) services worth an estimated £63 million in the new buildings over a period of 30 years. This will include mechanical and electrical maintenance, estates management, grounds maintenance, utilities management and the provision and operation of a helpdesk. The building design maximises the location within the local environment, and woodland management will be a particularly important element of the services Interserve will deliver.

The new hospital, which will be seven storeys in height with a floor area of 65,000 sq metres, includes planned and emergency surgery, orthopaedics, a women's and children's zone, day-case theatres, outpatient services and a mental health unit. Construction will be undertaken by Laing O'Rourke, beginning in 2008 on the site of the existing maternity hospital in Pembury, once a programme of site improvement works has been completed.
 
Adrian Ringrose, Chief Executive of Interserve Plc, commented: "Pembury Hospital is an excellent scheme and will provide vital health services to the people of Kent, Medway and East Sussex. This win builds on our existing strength in the health sector. We currently provide services to a number of hospital trusts in England including North Cumbria Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, University College of London Hospitals NHS Trust, Dudley Hospitals NHS Trust and Oxfordshire Mental Healthcare NHS Trust, and have provided facilities for many others through 80 projects in the NHS ProCure21 framework programme."