Alistair Handford, from Prime Health, said: "The Prime Health consortium is pleased to begin this 30 year partnership with the Trust and its staff to deliver state-of-the-art healthcare facilities and services for the benefit of the local community."

Carole Heatly, Chief Executive of Kingston Hospital NHS Trust said:

“I am delighted that the final commercial and legal negotiations are complete and we have now signed the contract with the Prime Health Consortium.  The planning of Phase 5 has been a long and involved process and I would like to thank our partners, our staff and patients for their support over the last four years. We are also extremely grateful for the support we have received from the Royal Borough Of Kingston Council, local residents and businesses. This is a very exciting time for Kingston Hospital and we are looking forward to the building work starting on site this week.”

The new development is part of a strategy to upgrade the hospital as part of a site-wide strategy, which includes building a new Nurses Home, Day Nursery main entrance and William Rous Cancer Unit etc.

Notes to Editors

• Please call Christine Jones on 020 7901 3200
• Equion plc, a division of John Laing plc, is a specialist provider of facilities in the PFI and PPP markets with a long-term perspective and approach. Equion offers a combination of skills and experience, from planning and funding through to design, construction and operation.
• Equion is actively involved in the management of a wide range of police, education, health, defence and special purpose serviced accommodation projects.
• John Laing plc, is the UK’s leading corporate developer and investor in public infrastructure through the Private Finance Initiative with a proven record of delivering new investments on time and to budget. It holds a large and expanding portfolio of investments under three main divisions: Equion, Laing Roads and Laing Rail.