Work is set to begin on a brand new £68 million “state of the art” trauma centre to expand the services at Salford Royal Hospital.
Following planning permission for the project – which was granted back in December 2019 – ground will be broken on the new six-storey development today, making Salford Royal a central hub for 90% of major trauma operations across Greater Manchester and a provider of support for people involved in serious incidents, such as car crashes or life-changing falls.
The new centre will be named the James Potter Building in honour of the hospital’s recently retired long-standing chairman.
Once complete, the new centre is expected to treat around 400 patients a year and is set to include a resuscitation area, five emergency theatres, inpatient beds, diagnostic imaging and even a helipad, which means that seriously ill patients will reach the site even quicker for potentially life-saving treatment.
It will also make Salford Royal a hub for high risk emergency general surgery for patients in Bolton and Wigan.
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Speaking on the start of construction Raj Jain – CEO of the Northern Care Alliance NHS Group, which runs Salford Royal – said: “This important facility has been many years in the planning with a number of our local, regional and national partners and it’s great to now be just weeks away from the official start date of construction.
“We are proud to be the major trauma centre for Greater Manchester and this centre and the amazing state of the art facilities and our specialist clinical teams within it will allow us to provide trauma care and services to an additional 400 trauma patients per year and help save more lives.
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“Our partnership with Bolton NHS Foundation Trust and Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust will see us use this facility as the home for a new single-service for high risk emergency general surgery.
“This new team will strive to provide a general surgery service with the best outcomes in the UK”.
BAM / Northern Care AllianceBAM / Northern Care Alliance
He continued: “We are of course currently working through the most challenging of times as we deal with the pressures and challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic [but] the start of construction work is extremely welcomed and fills us all with excitement about the fantastic future that we can start to create for major trauma and complex general surgery services.”
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Rob Bailey – Healthcare Construction Manager at the company behind the construction work, BAM – said: “We have worked extensively on the design and programme with the trust to understand fully what their requirements are, and focus completely on what matters to them to provide a high quality building in which their patients are cared for and their staff can provide that care.
“That is how buildings should be delivered, with the outcomes the client wants placed at the centre.”
Health minister Edward Argar added: “I am pleased work is underway on this major development to provide state of the art new facilities and ensure patients can access specialised, life-saving treatment.
“The £68m new hospital at Salford Royal will be one of the 48 hospitals which we’re backing to deliver by 2030 as part of the biggest hospital building programme in a generation and strategic long-term investment in the future of our NHS.”
The new development is predicted to take until Summer 2023 to complete.
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Government sets out multi-million-pound plan to move UK away from animal testing in science
Emily Sergeant
A £22m push to ramp up the UK’s move away from animal testing in science is set to bring together cutting-edge tech and research.
The latest figures show there were 2.54 million animal testing procedures in Great Britain in 2025, which is down 3.8% on 2024, but with a further update due to be released later this year, the Government is now moving to ‘capitalise’ on that momentum with funding to shift the nation onto alternative testing options.
A dedicated national research hub and nine new high-tech projects are planned to develop ‘better ways’ to test medicines on human biology rather than animals.
According to the Government, this means treatments for conditions like cancer and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) could be developed ‘faster’ and ‘more precisely’ to not only help patients but crucially also move science away from traditional animal testing.
At the heart of the plans is a new Pre-clinical Translational Models Hub – based in Cambridge and backed by £20 million in Government funding, which will work to build and share models of human tissue, grown from NHS patients, to test new treatments.
The new hub will accelerate the development of testing on ‘organoids’ – tiny, simplified versions of a human gut, tumour or brain, using cells donated by patients.
From beating heart cells in a dish to AI that can predict how drugs move through the body, exciting alternatives to animal testing are transforming medical research.
We're investing £22m to help scientists develop the next generation of life-saving treatments. pic.twitter.com/1EWRQvwySa
— Dept. for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade (@biztradegovuk) August 12, 2026
Because these ‘organoids’ retain crucial features of a patient’s own biology, they will help researchers learn how a real person may respond to a drug and provide additional insights that can complement information that is currently obtained from animals.
Scientists will then be able to use these cutting-edge techniques in their own labs to work out which medicines are worth pursuing.
Overall, it’s hoped that the move will slash the time it takes to get ‘potentially life-changing’ treatments to market.
Alongside the funding for the new Hub, nine cutting-edge projects aimed at identifying new methods of animal-free scientific testing – from beating heart cells in a dish, to lab-grown human ear models, and AI that predicts how medicines move through the body – are being funded.
Sadly, many of these still rely on testing on dogs and monkeys, as it stands.
“This marks another significant step forward in the UK’s move away from animal testing in science and research,” commented Science Minister Chris McDonald.
“This is all about backing our world-leading researchers and innovators to improve lives, giving them the tools they need to deliver more effective treatments for horrendous diseases like cancer, while also preventing the need for animal testing wherever possible.
“It’s also a boost for our life sciences sector, fuelling opportunities for new investment and new jobs, and ensuring Britain is better off.”
Elbow get behind campaign to save Jodrell Bank from closure
Danny Jones
Manc band Elbow are among the latest to get behind the campaign to save Jodrell Bank Observatory from closing permanently.
The Greater Manchester natives famously played a sold-out gig at the important scientific and cultural landmark for a very special live album recording well over a decade ago, and know all too well the site’s national and, indeed, global heritage.
Choosing the Observatory and the rare chance to perform a show in the shadow of the world-renowned James Lovell Telescope, it probably remains one of their most significant standalone UK date ever.
With that in mind, the local lads have been left just as worried by the news of its impending closure as everyone else, and have therefore issued a fresh appeal to help keep it open.
Posting a timely statement on social media, the group wrote: “Jodrell Bank has long been close to elbow’s heart. In 2012, the band played beneath the Lovell Telescope for one of the most memorable shows in our history.
“The recent news that funding for the e-MERLIN radio telescope network is set to end in 2028 puts the future of the scientific work at Jodrell Bank under serious threat. It is a remarkable place, with an extraordinary history, and one that continues to play an important role in science, culture and education.”
In addition to reliving clips and images from the historic live set all the years later, they also pointed people towards their ‘elbow – Live at Jodrell Bank‘ album documentary, which has now been made available online for the very first time as part of wider efforts to raise awareness around the cause.
Directing people to key online resources shared by the institution and astrophysics centre itself following their unfortunate update late last month, the push to not only find the funding but sustain support for the facility continues to ramp up throughout the world of science, arts and industry.
For anyone who somehow missed the news – 2028 being the current deadline handed down as per budget cuts across the sector – concerned parties here in the North West and all over the country have since started petitioning to save Jodrell Bank Observatory from shutting down for good.
In addition to being described as a “huge blow” to the field by the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS), some have even gone so far as to describe the decision as a form of “vandalism” when it comes to research and British culture as a whole.
Having also served as the host venue for the annual bluedot Festival since 2016, the multi-genre science and arts celebration could soon be forced to find a new home.
The battle is far from over yet, and the community has time to rescue Jodrell Bank Observatory from its fate, but it will take lots of money and more notable public figures to make it happen.
Once again, you can do your bit by signing the petition mentioned above right HERE.
The Manc -
22nd February 2021 
