The outline business case for the acute hospital has been cleared by the Scottish government’s capital investment group.
NHS Dumfries and Galloway chief Operating Officer Julie White said this meant that the search for contractors could now begin. “This is an extremely important milestone in the development of a new hospital for this region. The approval by Scottish government enables us to proceed to the open market to commence our procurement process,” she said.
“We will now engage with external companies who will work with us to complete the detailed design, build the hospital and finance the construction.
Mott MacDonald and Keppie Design have been working as technical consultants on the project since July 2012.
Ms White added: “The project has already attracted a considerable amount of interest from a range of multi-national companies. The procurement process will take a number of months and it is anticipated that work will commence on site in the spring of 2015 with the new hospital being open to patients in the first half of 2018. This project represents a significant boost to our local economy and we will work with the preferred bidder to ensure involvement of local small and medium sized businesses, and to develop local apprenticeships.”
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