Salisbury Hospital given £10m to improve sustainability

A NHS trust has been given more than £10m to make its district hospital more energy efficient.

The money will go towards making various buildings at Salisbury District Hospital more sustainable.

Funded by the government's Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme, the upgrades will include replacing gas fired boilers with heat pumps and introducing solar panels.

Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust said the money would allow it to "decarbonise".

Other upgrades will include new insulation for the hospital's Odstock Health and Fitness Centre and Spinal Treatment Centre, improvements to the heating distribution pipework and upgrades to the building's energy management system.

'Move from fossil fuels'

Director of Estates and Facilities at Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust, Brian Johnson, said the £10,005,491 of funding will enable the hospital to "decarbonise our heating and hot water systems through the implementation of innovative, multi-stage, high-temperature heat pump systems".

He said they had also secured funding to investigate the feasibility of geothermal energy on their campus.

"Providing low-carbon heat to our buildings via a new district heat network, which when combined with building fabric improvements, will enable the Trust to move away from fossil fuel-based systems, while maintaining the resilience required for an acute hospital trust," he added.

The grant comes alongside money for vulnerable and off-gas grid households as part of the second phase of the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund and the Home Upgrade Grant.

In the South West, more than £80m will be given as part of the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund, helping providers of social housing, charities that own social housing and local authorities to upgrade their energy systems.