Manchester Metropolitan University and Nuffield Health announce strategic health partnership

The partnership will see a state of the art hospital and wellbeing centre built in central Manchester. Together the two will collaborate on research and development, training for local healthcare professionals and fitness, wellbeing and sickness prevention.

Nuffield Health’s new flagship private hospital in Manchester will be built on MMU’s former Elizabeth Gaskell site on Hathersage Road, which will be vacated in August when the University moves to the new £140m Birley Campus in the city centre.

David Mobbs, Group Chief Executive, Nuffield Health, said: 
"We are delighted to be forging a strategic partnership with Manchester Metropolitan University and to have the opportunity to build a multi-million pound state-of-the-art hospital in Manchester.

"We are very much looking forward to the collaboration with the university a partnership which we believe will serve as a springboard to significantly improve the region’s healthcare provision and make a lasting contribution to the economy and the general wellbeing of everyone who lives and works in the North West."

The first step in the partnership will be Nuffield Health's purchase of the land adjacent to the Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Trust for a tertiary level private hospital with digital theatres and state-of-the-art technology.  

The partnership will include a series of collaborations with MMU and Corridor Manchester including:

• The creation of a new University Chair in Wellbeing with funding to support research public health, health promotion and health behaviour change
• Support for undergraduate fitness, physiotherapy, nursing, and theatre operating practitioner work placements
• Postgraduate research support for physiotherapy and wellbeing, using Nuffield Health data 
• Funding collaboration to unlock other funding sources for joint projects 
• Joint health and wellbeing forums for city business and community leaders
• Developing Masters and Continuing Professional Development programmes for healthcare professionals in the region

University Vice-Chancellor Professor John Brooks said: "I am delighted that Nuffield Health has chosen this University as a strategic partner and will sponsor a Chair in Wellbeing. I am confident that the partnership will play to the strengths of both parties and will evolve to make a significant contribution to the policy framework for health and well-being in the UK."

Nuffield Health's long term vision also includes plans for a network of wellbeing centres to help Manchester Community address wellbeing and working with employers of Manchester to help them support their employees to prevent ill-health.

Hospitals Managing Director, K P Doyle, said: 
"Through the long-term engagement and dialogue with local communities, key business partners and with both the Manchester Metropolitan University and the Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Trust, we will create a facility which complements the existing healthcare infrastructure of the North West, and serves as a hotbed for research and development.  This is a truly exciting collaboration."

Last updated Thursday 28 July 2016

First published on Tuesday 1 July 2014