MORE than £100 million in contracts is set to be awarded for a new hospital in East Lothian.

The new £72m community hospital for East Lothian will be built and serviced by Galliford Try, it was announced yesterday.

The FTSE-250 housebuilding and construction group confirmed that its Morrison Construction division has been named preferred bidder for the hospital, one of the flagship projects for the Hub South East Scotland on behalf of NHS Lothian.

In a further boost for the company, Galliford Try’s facilities management business has been appointed preferred bidder to provide ongoing hard facilities maintenance and lifecycle management to the East Lothian Community Hospital.

This contract will be worth approximately £32m over a 25-year period. In addition, Galliford Try Investments will also be investing and providing management services to the company which will be set up to fund the project.

The new hospital will be built on the existing Roodlands site in Haddington, with construction work anticipated to start on the 23,000sqm complex in late 2016.

Some services will return to East Lothian as part of the new development and it will bring an increase of almost 60 per cent in the number of inpatient beds to the county.

When operational, the facility will provide a range of community-based services to include day surgery, mental health inpatient beds, medicine for the elderly, pharmacy and a number of other treatment services.

Peter Truscott, chief executive of Galliford Try, said: “We are delighted to have been selected by Hub South East Scotland for this major project in Haddington.

“This appointment demonstrates the capabilities of our combined offering across construction, facilities management and investments, and we look forward to working with Hub South East Scotland and NHS Lothian to create the top-class facilities the local public deserve.”

A planning application for the new hospital was submitted last week. David Small, chief officer at East Lothian Health and Social Care Partnership, said: “We are delighted to have reached this important stage in the process of developing the new hospital.

“These are exciting plans which will see a modern and purpose-built hospital developed, helping improve the quality of care for people in East Lothian.

“We have also engaged extensively with over 300 local people, including neighbours close to the Roodlands site, and valued their comments.”

Devised in tandem with the planning submission, the outline business case for the project will set out exact costs, hospital services and timescales.

The project team anticipates submitting the outline business case for approval to the Scottish Government by early 2016.

Paul McGirk, chief executive of Hub South East Scotland Ltd, said: “Hub South East has been supporting NHS Lothian in the initial planning of this project and we are excited to reach another key milestone, allowing us to further progress the development, design and construction of this much-needed facility for East Lothian.

“We look forward to continuing this successful working relationship, helping NHS Lothian deliver on its strategic aims, and providing modern, fit-for-purpose healthcare facilities for local residents.”