The Provider Collaborative has led the business case process to secure £29.7million for a new aseptic medicine production facility for the North East and North Cumbria.
The funding is from NHS England and is part of a national fund of £75million. It will see several new sites across the country for aseptic production. Our bid was a success because all our FTs are working together, with almost half of the national funding allocation coming to our region.
The new ‘Medicines Manufacturing Centre’ will be based at Seaton Delaval and work as part of a new hub and spoke model with existing aseptic units across the region.
It will produce large quantities of ready-to-administer injectable medicines, including antibiotics, chemotherapy and ‘over-labelled’ medicines. This will also help to free up valuable nursing time on our hospital wards to allow staff to provide other clinical care, rather than having to prepare medicines.
The aim of the new regional facility is to increase our overall capacity to manufacture more medicines. This is because we know that many of our existing local and national aseptic preparation units are already working at, or nearing, capacity.
Building work is expected to start on site in Seaton Delaval in summer 2024 following approval of the Full Business Case. We hope to start operating from the new Medicines Manufacturing Centre in January 2026, subject to MHRA approval.
“Our new regional facility, means we will be able to achieve much better efficiencies manufacturing at scale and create resilience in our supply chain.”
