The Cardiff and Vale Health Board has received a £33m investment from Welsh Government to build a temporary surge facility to ensure sufficient surge capacity is available in the event of a spike in the COVID-19 pandemic. This comes after we have agreed with Welsh Government and the WRU to decommission the use of the Principality Stadium as a Field Hospital from 10th November 2020.
After a thorough options appraisal, the area outside of Lakeside at the UHW site was evaluated as the best option to construct a temporary U-shaped modular building which will be known as the ‘UHW Lakeside Wing’.
The UHW Lakeside Wing will accommodate up to 400 beds; this with the additional 200 beds available across the Health Board’s sites, will allow us to provide 600 beds in total which meets the requirement as predicted by Welsh Government and local intelligence data and modelling.
Construction started on Saturday 12 September and we expect the construction to be completed in phases:
Phase 1 – the Northern wing of the building – 166 beds are expected to be ready by 25th November 2020
Phase 2 – the Southern wing of the building – 244 beds are expected to be ready by 28th January 2021
The developers, Darwin Group Ltd, is expected to give the final handover of the UHW Lakeside Wing to the Health Board on 5 February 2021.
The Health Board, together with Darwin Group Ltd and other contractors, acknowledges that UHW is a fully working site and will make sure disruption is kept to a minimum for staff and patients at the hospital. For example, we are pledging to replant every tree upon completion. Although construction is taking place 24/7, we will keep our staff, patients and the public updated on progress of the build.
We anticipate no services, patient clinics or appointments will be affected by construction. If there are any temporary disruptions, we will communicate these in advance.
For FAQs regarding the construction, please click here
