The London hospital where Britain’s first heart and lung transplant was performed could become part of a neurosurgery campus to help stave off financial crisis.
Consultants have drawn up a “medical master-plan” for the Harefield hospital site after its bosses admitted it and the Royal Brompton, its sister hospital, faced a “very significant risk”.
The Brompton, in Chelsea, is at risk of losing its congenital heart surgery programme and the trust fears having other services decommissioned.
Senior figures at the Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Trust have held talks with the MedParc consultancy and invited it to continue work on expanding the range of facilities on the Harefield site in north-west London.
Trust bosses were forced to shelve plans for a £500 million transformation of the Brompton site and will now sell outlying buildings to maintain cash flow.
The first to be sold will be a property in Sydney Street, worth £20 million to £24 million and occupied by a noodle bar, and the nearby Chelsea Farmers Market site.
Proposals submitted to the trust board suggest funding the redevelopment of Harefield from revenue generated by new facilities, including neurosurgery, a neuro-rehabilitation unit, a medical school and a hotel for patients and families.
This would allow the trust to expand its “core” business as a specialist heart and lung hospital and tap into demand from private patients.
Professor Sir Magdi Yacoub performed Britain’s first heart and lung transplant at Harefield in 1983, and it has since performed more than 3,000 such transplants.
The hospital was established during the First World War for the treatment of Australian and New Zealand soldiers.
James Dickmann, director of MedParc, which developed the new KIMS private hospital in Maidstone, Kent, said: “Harefield has an internationally recognised clinical reputation which is sadly let down by sub-optimal facilities.
"Our opinion is they need to modernise and grow to both retain their consultants and specialist teams.”
The trust admitted the plan had “synergies” because it was “not uncommon for patients at Harefield to experience neurological damage”.
However, it said: “The opportunity to generate much-needed income for the trust, which could then be reinvested in patient facilities, is clearly something that the management team takes seriously.
"This particular proposal, however, is at a very early stage.”
