16302/1THE new Savernake Hospital, which sees buildings spanning three centuries coming together, is nearing completion with the first patients expected to move back in on June 27.

It will be 17 months since the only resident patients, those on the Ailesbury geriatric ward, were moved out to Devizes Community Hospital for the duration of the £9 million project.

The Kennet and North Wilts Primary Care Trust, its PFI partners Chiltern Securities and their contractors AMEC have had to blend the styles and designs covering a period of more than 230 years.

The oldest building to be retained is the original Savernake Hospital, the red brick and tile building designed by the Royal Academician, Sir Gilbert Scott.

On the other side of the site was the day hospital that was opened in the 1970s.

In between stood a modern outpatients building and a collection of ward extensions that had to be demolished.

In their place a new ultra-modern hospital has been constructed forming a link between the two older sets of buildings.

It will also cater for the elderly mentally ill patients from the Farmer Memorial Unit that will be demolished, once its patients have moved to their new ward.

The Farmer Memorial unit originally accommodation for nurses and other buildings behind the original hospital have to be demolished to clear the site for 38 homes that developer David Wilson will be building.

The sale of land for the homes, that will include 15 classified as affordable homes, was essential to help raise the capital for the new hospital.

On Tuesday the project manager for the new hospital, Denis Bridges, took the Gazette on a guided tour of the almost finished building.

Workers including carpenters and painters were putting the finishing touches to the two storey steel-framed building that links the two older sets of buildings on either side.

In spaces between the new hospital and the older buildings two new courtyards have been built.

One will be specifically for the patients from the Ailesbury unit and will be entirely secure for their protection.

Marlborough and District Rotary Club has helped finance the other courtyard that will be for general use by patients, visiting families and staff.

The Rotary courtyard is designed around a paved wheel, representing the club's badge, to commemorate Rotary International's centenary this year and the local club's own 40th birthday.

At the hub of the Rotary wheel stands an enormous sarsen stone that has its own story to tell.

The 11 tonne stone was unearthed during construction of the day hospital in the late Seventies. It was too big to remove so it was erected as a feature at the entrance to the car park.

It has been moved with the aid of a giant crane and is the focal point of the new Rotary courtyard.

The ground floor of the new hospital will contain the Minor Injuries Unit that has remained open in the Gilbert Scott building throughout the building project.

Opposite the reception area will be a cafeteria, opening on to the courtyard, and one of its interior walls will feature a stained glass window removed from the old hospital chapel that had to be demolished.

Mr Bridges said the old window would be safely sandwiched between two protective layers of safety glass.

Kitchens where pre-cooked and frozen food will be thawed and heated are also on the ground floor.

The outpatients and X-ray department will be on the ground floor.

Upstairs is the Ailesbury unit, whose patients will be the first to move into the new hospital, or in the cases of some of the longer term patients, moving back into Savernake.

The mental health unit has its own lounge and dining room with a balcony overlooking the Marlborough Cricket Club grounds and Savernake Forest.

It has been designed for 35 in-patients although, for the foreseeable future, only 25 beds will be available.

The opening has been slightly delayed due to some unforeseen snags, said Mr Bridges, which currently include house martins' nests preventing painters finishing the fascia boards on the Gilbert Scott building.