Major milestone for islands health and social care facility
Houston, we have a building! The first batch of modular units for the new Isles of Scilly Integrated Health and Social Care Facility are now in place.
Lifting began on Monday 20 January, for the modules that will make up the hospital wing part of the new building. Each unit was craned into place, all in less than 24 hours!
Watch the moment the first module was lifted into place below.
The big build in pictures
The new facility is being built on the site of St Mary's Community Hospital and land next to St Mary's Health Centre.
His Royal Highness, the Duke of Cornwall broke the first ground in May 2024. Prince William described the development as exciting , adding: I look forward to coming to see it next year.
3 months later, the big build picked up pace with the arrival of the 29 modular units. Against the odds of time and tide, they were shipped to the islands and brought ashore by landing craft in less than a week.
Using a 120 tonne crane, trucks, and trailers, the delivery team worked tirelessly to move the modules to the build site. Again, in less than a week!
Next up was the delivery of the concrete foundations, in the form of podiums and slabs pre-cast on the mainland.
Due to sheer size and weight, they had to be shipped to the islands and moved to the site in batches. The first arrived in September 2024, with the rest following in October and November.
Ken Jones, Build Lead, Community 1st Cornwall describes the logistics of delivering such a large facility on such a small island as no mean feat:
"It has been a very unusual project in every way, shape or form. I have been doing complex projects for the NHS in Cornwall for 18 years or so. This is the most complicated.
"When Prince William came over for his visit, he said I will come back in a year and see how you are getting on. We are all hoping we can stand there with him at the back of the completed building and say, here you go."
The lifting of the roof trusses is set to take place over the next couple of weeks. After that, it will be all systems go to get the hospital wing modules fitted out!
What will the new facility offer?
The site will have 12 residential care home beds, NHS inpatient beds, and a modern maternity suite. Outpatient services will continue, including x-ray, a minor injury unit, and dental and consulting rooms.
The facility will be part of a new model of care. It will provide robust services to keep people at home or close to home where clinically possible. This will include maximising digital technologies and remote support to provide more enabled care on the islands.
Tamsyn Anderson, Chief Operating Officer for our Trust said:
"We want to thank residents for their patience and support during the ongoing works to deliver this fantastic facility, that we are confident will bring significant benefits to the islands.
"As the build project moves forward, we are also looking at how digital and technological developments will help us better connect the off-islands to the hospital and the hospital to the mainland. We know that health-related travel can create challenges for islanders and clinicians; these developments are designed to reduce this.
"The goal of our new model of digitally enabled care is to deliver services at home or as close to home as possible, wherever safe to do so. We are excited to co-design these services with local residents and staff as part of our project."
Kate Shields, Chief Executive of NHS Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Integrated Care Board added:
"It is so exciting to see the new integrated health and social care facility taking shape on St Mary's. I am so proud of everyone involved in the extraordinary efforts which have enabled such great progress. I look forward to seeing developments myself when I visit the islands next month. After all of the planning we have done over many years, it is brilliant to see the hospital changing. Real investment in our people on the Isles of Scilly.
"This facility is going to make such a huge difference to the islanders and those who provide their care, embodying our aspiration to make Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly a great place to be born, live, and grow old."
The lifting of the modules that will form the new care home part of the facility is the next stage of the big build and is set to happen in the spring.
Scott Fuller, Director of Adult Social Services for the Council of the Isles of Scilly says integrated means much more than sharing a building:
"I sometimes hear the phrase 'medicalising old age'. But having health and social care services working together takes away the need for medicalisation. It is not about the pill that you take, it is about the support that you give.
"If we have 2 services working together with that same philosophy of not medicalising old age, we can encourage and support people to remain healthy and independent. We can keep people at home longer. It means that when people do need extra health or residential care, they can access it. But they can access it from a position of strength."
The project is a collaboration between: Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust; Council of the Isles of Scilly; primary care; Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust; South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust; voluntary sector partners; mental health services. All partners are working in collaboration with the Duchy of Cornwall.