BED capacity at Frimley Park Hospital will improve after a new diagnostics and in-patient building was granted planning permission, council reports said.

The four-storey building will sit on the site of the soon-to-be-demolished records block but conditions were applied to the plans in an effort to limit the impact construction would have on traffic and visitors.

The Portsmouth Road hospital says the plans will “improve bed capacity” as well as relocate all diagnostic facilities into one place, on the ground floor, rather than spread throughout the entire complex.

Three of the four floors would also have direct links to the main hospital.

If this sounds familiar, it’s because a similar application was approved in March 2018 but never implemented and planning permission for that has since expired. 

Once built the near 20-metre-high hospital wing will be clad in aluminium panels.

Officers, who raised no objections in their recommendation to approve the plans, told the Surrey Heath planning committee on Thursday: “The need for the development to improve medical facilities, and to produce a better patient experience are noted and form part of a wider 'master plan' for development.”

Planning committee chairperson Councillor Edward Hawkins addressed the meeting and spoke of the volume of complaints he had received from residents on the matter regarding car parking and congestion around the hospital.

He said he  had “major concerns” over the development, despite accepting the benefits it brings to the hospital and well-being of its patients, over the access to the site along Portsmouth Road during the construction phase.

Cllr Hawkins said:  “As it is the hospital I can’t not support it, but I have serious reservations about it.”

Cllr Cliff Betton, ward member for Frimley Green, agreed with the issue of congestion. He said: “It seems to me, as does probably anybody who’s actually visited Frimley Park Hospital that the problem arises at the entrance to the car park.” 

With the previous planning application already agreed, and no changes in planning law that would impact the proposals since, members had few grounds to refuse.

Therefore the plans were agreed with a number of conditions, notably that only the southern entrance could be used for its construction and an informative put in place on the route guidance to minimise disruption to peak visiting hours.