Balfour Beatty has announced the completion of the first phase of the £96m North Durham General Hospital PFI project at Dryburn in Durham. It has been handed over to the client, Consort Healthcare, on schedule and to budget.

Final clinical fit-out and preparations for service will now commence and patients will be transferred from the existing hospital to the new state-of-the-art 454-bed hospital in the spring 2001.

The Balfour Beatty subsidiary, Haden Building Management, will be responsible for non-clinical operational services in the new hospital, including both soft and hard services such as catering, cleaning, security, reception, car parking and M&E. The FM contract is worth £100m over a 25 year period.

Chief executive of Balfour Beatty, Mike Welton, said: “This is an important milestone for the portfolio of PFI healthcare projects which Balfour Beatty has in hand, and demonstrates the significant advantages of integrating design, construction and services which the PFI process allows.

“The asset base represented by our full PFI portfolio, including two other hospitals, three roads and power, education and water concessions, is an increasingly important part of the business and represents significant embedded value for the group”.

The project is scheduled for final completion in November 2001.

Jessica Jarlvi