Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital 5.07

The Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital is a National Health Service academic teaching hospital in the Norwich Research Park on the western outskirts of Norwich, England.The university hospital replaced the former, Norfolk and Norwich Hospital, which was founded in 1771, and the West Norwich Hospital. The Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital was built under the Private Finance Initiative, and opened in late 2001: it has 1237 acute beds and offers a wide range of NHS acute health services plus private patient facilities. It is one of the largest hospitals in the United Kingdom in terms of in-patient capacity. The hospital is part of the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.NNUH was the first new NHS teaching hospital built in England for more than 30 years and the hospital trust is a joint venture partner with the University of East Anglia. The hospital is a teaching centre for nurses, midwives, doctors, therapists and operating department practitioners. It hosts the Norwich GP speciality training scheme.ConstructionOn 11 January 1998, Prime Minister Tony Blair announced the go-ahead for the construction of a £214 million, 809 bed, new hospital in a broadcast from Tokyo on the BBC's Breakfast with Frost show. Site work started the following day (12 January 1998). The project was the first large PFI hospital scheme in the NHS. In July 2000 approval was given to extend the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital with a second phase that included an additional 144 beds and took the project cost to £229 million. The Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust pays the private PFI Octagon consortium in the region of £41 million a year. In 2004, the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants assessed the actual costs at £1.16 billion, or around five times the initial cost of £229 million.