Construction of a new building housing birth, emergency and critical care, and children's health services has reached a key milestone at Royal Bournemouth Hospital.

A traditional topping-out ceremony was recently held at the site of the new BEACH Building, with guests led to the top of the structure by a bagpiper and a symbolic tightening of bolts taking place.

An evergreen bough was also nailed to the structure, followed by an exchange of tankards to symbolise a ‘job well done’.

The event was attended by Lord Markham, Under Secretary of State for the Department of Health and Social Care; and Jacqueline Smith, deputy lieutenant of Dorset, alongside staff from University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust (UHD), including chief executive, Siobhan Harrington, and Dr Isabel Smith, UHD’s medical director for transformation. 

The event was hosted by Integrated Health Projects (IHP), an alliance between VINCI Building UK and Sir Robert McAlpine, which is constructing the new facility.

Lord Markham said: “It was an honour to attend the topping-out ceremony of Royal Bournemouth Hospital’s new BEACH Building, backed by over £168m of government investment.

We continue to work closely with the NHS to improve services and this new building is part of over 70 hospital upgrades we’re delivering across the country, on top of 40 new hospitals

“This building will improve birth, emergency and critical care services, and children’s health services, making a significant difference in helping cut waiting times for patients in Dorset by serving nearly 145,000 patients a year.

“We continue to work closely with the NHS to improve services and this new building is part of over 70 hospital upgrades we’re delivering across the country, on top of 40 new hospitals.”

The BEACH Building is a 23,000sq m complex standing six storeys tall – equivalent to 115 tennis courts. 

It will house a new maternity unit and children’s unit, as well as an enhanced emergency department, larger than the existing facilities at the Royal Bournemouth and Poole Hospital combined, together with a critical care unit with capacity for 30 beds. 

When it opens in spring 2025, it will enable the Royal Bournemouth Hospital to become the major emergency hospital for Dorset.

The construction work has been designed to minimise disruptions to the site for the duration of the project, with the BEACH Building itself set to open in autumn 2024. 

The project is part of a wider £250m investment to transform UHD’s hospitals.

Harrington said: “The BEACH Building, when it welcomes patients in 2025, will help create a hospital specialising in emergency care at the Royal Bournemouth, while at Poole, we are putting the finishing touches to our new operating theatres complex - creating the major planned hospital for Dorset. 

“As we plan for the future services, we remain focused on the present, and the responsibility to continue to deliver high-class care for all our patients.”