FIFTY-YEAR-OLD staff accommodation at North Devon District Hospital (NDDH) is expected to be demolished and replaced with a modern building.

It is the first phase of work to upgrade the hospital in Barnstaple and is considered key to recruitment and staff retention.

The Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust wants to replace Munro House and Chichester House on Raleigh Road with one four-storey, flat-roofed building.

It will contain 112 ensuite bedrooms arranged in six- to eight-bed cluster flats and four two-bed units for families.

The scheme includes wheelchair accessible units. A separate bike and surfboard store is proposed as well as a bin/ recycling store and laundry.

The building will be on the same footprint as the existing building, set in a parkland-type setting, says the trust, with landscaping providing the opportunity for biodiversity net gain through new, native trees and wildflower meadows.

There will be recreational spaces and quiet study areas. Staff are generally housed for periods of up to three months.

BAM Construction was appointed in May to build the staff accommodation part of the hospital revamp.

The trust invited residents of the adjoining properties on Robourgh Road to a consultation event in July.

Bedrooms will face away from the neighbouring buildings and main internal living spaces of kitchen, living and dining rooms and amenity areas are away from the neighbouring boundary to avoid overlooking.

All site traffic should use a specifically constructed access road by the main hospital entrance, subject to planning and highways approval.

Funding for the work the hospital promised by the previous Conservative government under the New Hospitals Programme in 2019 is currently under review.

The total project has been estimated to cost £600 million and includes building new intensive care facilities and operating theatres. The clinical care building will be in the second phase of the work.

Speaking in parliament this week, North Devon Ian Roome MP claimed if the hospital, the most remote in mainland England, does not get the funding now, critical and acute services will be at “serious risk of service failure” and there is no other hospital provision for 40 miles.

He said the previous Conservative government had not delivered on its promise to get spades in the ground by last February.

Alison Stephenson