HEALTH chiefs today announced Saturday, March 16, 2002, will be the opening date for Wor-cestershire's long-awaited new £95m PFI hospital.

The first patients will be transferred from Ronkswood during that weekend. Patients at Castle Street will follow a week later.

Hospital transfers are normally carried out over longer periods of time, but the Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust set up a special project board and team to oversee the switch of patients over two weekends - a move dubbed "the Worcestershire Way".

Support services are due to move to the new Newtown site between February 18 and March 15.

The target date for completion of the building will be Sunday, January 7, and, before the transfer of support services, the hospital will have six weeks of intensive cleaning to meet strict standards.

The final moves into the new hospital will be out-patients over the Easter weekend of March 29 to April 3, 2002.

"The people of Worcestershire have been looking forward to the move into the hospital for many years," said the trust's chief executive, Ruth Harrison.

"I'm delighted we now know exactly when this is going to happen.

"Our detailed planning is well underway. By moving patients over two weekends we aim to be able to continue providing emergency services throughout the move.

"Non-emergency services will be reduced around the time."

The deal for the new hospital was signed on March 28, 1999, and construction began on May 4 that year.

Facilities in the 38,000 sq metre hospital will include around 2,000 rooms, 452 in-patient beds, and nine operating theatres, with an estimated 60,000 people passing through the accident and emergency department each year.

Other developments are the £2.9m refurbishment of the existing building on the Newtown site, including 22 beds, due to be completed in September, 2001.

In addition, there is the £3.5m new education centre due by late December, 2002, and residential accommodation - at a cost of £2.5m - set for completion by August this year.