It is all change for staff and patients at Barnet General Hospital as the builders move in to start work on the second phase of development.

With the imminent signing of a Private Finance Initiative (PFI) deal worth £48million to fund the project, preparation work has already begun to move medical services with staff and patients out of old buildings into temporary accommodation.

Hospital bosses are making way for contractors to demolish existing buildings and construct in their place what will be phase 1b of the hospital's redevelopment.

Work will include the refurbishment of the hospital's hutted wards with the removal of low-grade asbestos from the roofs and new arrangements for car parking on the site.

Hospital bosses are under no illusion that the upheaval could potentially cause chaos, but are asking patients, staff and visitors to be tolerant.

Andrew Woodhead, chief executive of the Wellhouse Trust, which runs Barnet General, said everything was being done to ensure disruption would be kept to a minimum.

He said: "We want to ensure, when we are moving people, we give them as much information as possible and try to minimise the car parking problem."

He also warned that traffic flow will alter around the site. But hospital bosses are also relying on visitors' common sense by using public transport and not the car unless it is necessary.

The trust will be opening a visitors' centre where people can go for up-to-date information and directions before making their way to wards and departments during the building work.

Mr Woodhead stressed that clinical standards would not be compromised during the upheaval of services and that an extra ten beds were being provided during the winter, the hospital's busiest time.

The hospital's health and safety adviser Graham Dewey added every precaution was being taken to ensure the safety of staff and visitors during building work, particularly with the removal of asbestos.

When the new building is ready it will accommodate laboratory and physiotherapy facilities as well as private wards, shops and restaurants.

The first phase of building which has already been completed, incorporates Accident & Emergency, maternity and a number of other wards.

Work for the second phase will begin in April next year and continue until September 2001 -- almost three years after the planned initial completion date.

Mr Woodhead added: "People will agree it will be worth the inconvenience with a much-improved hospital and state-of-the-art facilities, which will be the envy of neighbouring trusts.

Wards on the move: Cardiology outpatients moves to Upper Heather ward, medical assessment unit and coronary care unit move to ward 3, hospital shop and flower shop move to the hospital's main entrance, rheumatology outpatients move to Upper Heather ward.

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