£150m Wolverhampton Royal Hospital makeover under threat

The £150 million transformation of Wolverhampton's Royal Hospital was today under threat after health bosses due to make it their new home revealed they would no longer be moving in.

Wolverhampton Primary Care Trust had been due to create a new base in the landmark building and move three GP surgeries inside.

The PCT, based at Coniston House, Chapel Ash, is the only organisation to publicly express commitment to moving in.

But chiefs today revealed that plans for the health base, the centrepiece of the development, were now off.

The hospital site in All Saints is being restored by owner Tesco in a transformation featuring more than 100 homes and a leisure complex.

Development has been in limbo for months because of Tesco's planning wrangle with Sainsbury's over the creation of a supermarket on land which they jointly own in Raglan Street, Graiseley.

Today's announcement came after it emerged the West Midlands' 16 primary care trusts and the region's Strategic Health Authority (SHA) are to be scrapped.

Jon Crockett, PCT chief executive, said negotiations between the supermarkets and Wolverhampton City Council over redevelopment of the former Royal site and land at Raglan Street were complex and lengthy.

It had never been possible to finalise plans for the PCT's use of part of the hospital site and pressures on public sector finances and changes to the way the NHS operates in the future were having a significant impact on major investment.

"Clearly as part of the Government's current consultation involves the abolition of PCTs, there will be no requirement for the PCT to have any administrative base in the future."

The hospital, off Bilston Road, closed in 1997. Health Secretary Andrew Lansley says 10 SHAs and 152 PCTs are to be "phased out" in a big shake-up. Tesco was unavailable for comment.

By Victoria Nash