The new facility is part of the Trust’s £200m investment programme to improve healthcare in Northumberland and North Tyneside over the next 10 years.

A design team is currently preparing fully coordinated production information packages, which are scheduled to be complete by the proposed start on site of the works in July 2012.

Bidders for the specialist emergency care hospital will need to nominate an M&E partner to compete for the two-year design and build job.

As well as its A&E department, the new hospital, designed by the trust’s clinicians, will include a short-stay paediatric facility and consultant-led maternity unit.

Its innovative design, spread over three floors, includes wards arranged around a central nurses’ station, to enable staff to keep a closer eye on patients.

The Trust has prepared full clinical design with detailed 1.50 room layouts and elevations signed off by trust clinical user groups.

Interested firms need to complete PQQs by 11 January for invitations to tender towards the end of February.

Further information is available from https://nep.eu-supply.com. More details [email protected], tel: 0191 203 1533.