Commissioned by The NHS Norfolk and Waveney Integrated Care System, and designed by LSI Architects, the new centre will give the hospital the capacity to diagnose disease quicker – particularly cancer, and in turn reduce NHS waiting lists, which have only grown since the COVID-19 pandemic. The James Paget University Hospital is one of Norfolk’s three acute hospital sites to benefit from a new diagnostic centre, the other two being Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital (NNUH), and Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) in King’s Lynn. The £85.9 m invested makes this the largest capital investment from the Department of Health and Social Care the region has seen for over 20 years.
LSI is also designing the new diagnostic centre at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital site. Each centre will be equipped with ‘state-of-the-art’ imaging equipment, including MRI and CT scanners, X-ray, and ultrasound machines. Once open, they will be set to deliver more than 281,000 tests, scans, and checks, to patients in Norfolk. The functional content of both is similar; each will be two-storey, with the ground floor dedicated to scanning equipment and associated facilities. The first floor of each will cater for the extensive mechanical requirements of a Diagnostic Centre.
Both buildings will be clad in a buff brick, and feature a covered entrance area and brick colonnade over two storeys, as well as a recessed brick reveal detail. The massing steps back at the top storey, which accommodates the smaller plantroom area, making the Diagnostic Centre building primarily single storey in appearance, in keeping with the context of the two hospital sites.
The two buildings have been designed to achieve Net Zero Carbon in operation, and BREEAM ‘Excellent’.