Leicestershire Partnership Trust is carrying out major refurbishments to Rutland Memorial Hospital in Oakham. The £1m of work will include significant roof repairs, new electrics, and remodelling to replace disused bathrooms with useful storage space.
The boilers will be replaced, asbestos removed, and some office space turned into space for outpatient treatment. The patient areas will be redecorated towards the end of the project.
Due to the nature of the work, the inpatient hospital ward will be relocated temporarily to Loughborough Hospital between 22 August and January 2023.
Nikki Beacher, an assistant director for Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust, said:
“I am excited about the opportunity this creates to improve the experience for our patients. We have decided to relocate the ward while the work is being done due to the disruptive nature of the construction work as the contractors will be generating dust and noise and will need to turn off the power at regular intervals.
“For the duration we will open an equivalent number of beds at Loughborough Hospital, but where possible we will care for Rutland residents more locally in our community hospitals in Melton and Market Harborough.”
Rutland Memorial is one of the older hospitals in LPT’s estate. It was built as a memorial to those who died in the First World War and opened in 1925, and so pre-dates the NHS by many years.
In recent years LPT has undertaken similar refurbishment projects at both Melton and St Luke’s Hospital in Market Harborough.