Willmott Dixon has topped out at the £140m Emergency Care Building at Derriford Hospital, marking structural completion of the first Wave 1 scheme in the New Hospital Programme to begin main construction.

Due for completion in April 2029, the building will provide four clinical floors of urgent and emergency care for people across Plymouth, South Devon and Cornwall.

Reaching this stage has taken 10,900 cubic metres of concrete and 1,900 tonnes of recycled steel reinforcement. The frame was designed to cut embodied carbon from the outset - by replacing 55% of the cement content with ground granulated blast-furnace slag (GGBS), a by-product of iron and steel production, the concrete used to date has saved an estimated 1,625 tonnes of carbon.

The ground floor will house an expanded Emergency Department, with the existing department reconfigured as a dedicated Paediatric ED on completion. A Same Day Emergency Care unit sits on the first floor, with four interventional radiology theatres and five new surgical theatres for both emergency and planned procedures above. Together the facilities will provide close to twice the capacity of the current 50-year-old Emergency Department, one of the busiest in the South West.

The scheme is procured under ProCure23 and is one of the first New Hospital Programme schemes designed to meet the NHS Net Zero Building Standard. The site will now move into the next phase of construction.

Stephen Ford, project director at Willmott Dixon, said: “Reaching this topping out milestone is a fantastic achievement and a testament to the truly collaborative approach that has defined this project from the very beginning. Working alongside University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust, our supply chain partners and specialist consultants, we have focused on creating more than just a building.

“The commitment, resilience and teamwork shown by everyone involved has been exceptional. We are excited to be playing our part in delivering a hospital that will serve the people of Plymouth and the wider Devon and Cornwall region, and one that every member of the project team can be proud of.”

In March this year, Willmott Dixon was appointed as one of 10 construction partners to the Hospital 2.0 Alliance, the delivery vehicle for the New Hospital Programme, and in July 2026 was named construction partner for the new Women and Children’s Hospital at the Royal Cornwall Hospital site in Truro.