Enabling work for our new hospital building at CRH is now well underway. You may have seen our Nurse Lead for Reconfiguration, Janette Cockroft, and General Manager for Reconfiguration, Sophie Box, out and about at CRH, talking to teams about what the work will mean for them. They've answered some of the key questions that colleagues have been asking about the work.

Can you help explain what enabling work is?

“Enabling work for a new building is all the things which help us get ready for construction. A lot of it involves groundwork to lay things such as pipes, and essential services such as drainage, which are needed before construction can start. Given the size of our new hospital building at CRH, this involves a huge amount of work and coordination!”

Where is the work happening and why?

“Colleagues will have seen the work happening in our car parks at CRH, as this is where the new hospital will be. The new building will sit where the current Women’s and Children’s car park is and round to where the Rainbow Centre is. Once you start to think of it in those terms, it does give you a sense of the scale of what is to come, which will be a significant development for not only CHFT but for our local community too. Eight new wards, and a new emergency department - with separate areas for adults and children – is a huge development.”

Is there a reason why the work needs to happen now?

“Every part of our Reconfiguration programme has taken meticulous planning, with each part having an impact on one another – even short changes to timescales can have a big impact on another piece of work. To be able to finish the construction on time, we needed to start the enabling work early in 2026.

“We are due to start construction on our new clinical building at CRH later this year and these essential services are needed ahead of the construction starting. Unfortunately, there is no other time we would be able to fit this work in as to not cause a significant delay in building our new hospital building.

“There is also a lot of internal work in CRH that will support the new hospital building. People will see site setup for our new maternity floor and Cath labs, and there’s more in the pipeline including the main entrance redesign."

How can colleagues support?

“All the work we have done so far as part of Reconfiguration – from the new A&E at HRI, to the Rainbow Centre at Elland, Community Diagnostic Centres and community – has colleagues at the heart. Our new clinical building feels like the biggest, but final piece of the puzzle and something that all colleagues – wherever you work – can be a part of.

“It’s fair to say that reconfiguring our services, so that planned care will be at HRI and unplanned at CRH, is no mean feat!

“Support comes in different ways. The patience and understanding of colleagues as we have started this enabling work has been fantastic. People’s commitment to keeping parking spaces free at CRH free for patients and visitors has been a huge source of support and meant that we can be in the best possible position to support our patients in coming for their appointments on time.

“Raising awareness is also a big help. One of the things we find when we go and speak to teams is that not everyone is aware of just how much is due to happen just around the corner!"

How to find out more

There are spaces available on sessions in the Immersive Suite this week - email Helen.Marshall@cht.nhs.uk if you would like to book:

You can find out more about the work on our Foundations for our Future website or take a look at our interactive map to see how CRH will look in the future.