The Anchor Centre Aberdeen delay has deepened, with the cancer facility’s expected operational opening now pushed back to May 2027, and NHS Grampian warning that further slippage to both the Anchor Centre and the neighbouring Baird Family Hospital remains possible. The update was set out in a report prepared ahead of NHS Grampian’s board meeting this week.
Graham is delivering the two facilities at Aberdeen’s Foresterhill Health Campus under a contract awarded in 2016 and initially valued at £134m. The overall project now carries an approved budget of £438.6m, with NHS Grampian stating that its latest cost forecast remained within that figure.
From a 2020 target to a 2027 opening
The scale of the programme’s difficulties becomes clear when set against the original timeline. Yahoo News has reported that the Anchor Centre was originally meant to open in 2020, meaning the project is now running at least seven years behind its earliest target. Each successive reset has been driven by a combination of technical, clinical and commercial complications that have compounded one another.
The most recent revision to the Anchor Centre programme reflects the implementation of additional water-safety measures and associated assurance requirements, according to NHS Grampian project director Ian Matthewson’s report. The centre is now expected to be handed over in March 2027, ahead of its operational opening two months later. In June, the board had already revised the expected opening from July to December 2026, following a March decision to add a secondary sterilisation unit to strengthen and protect the water system.
BBC News reported that infection control teams sounded the alarm after construction materials were allowed to get wet, a development that escalated concerns about the integrity of the facility’s water management. Health Secretary Angela Constance responded directly to the situation, stating: ‘Safety is always paramount and NHS Grampian is implementing several changes to the new hospital as a result of clinical recommendations, following a design review.’ The secondary sterilisation unit added in March was a direct consequence of that clinical scrutiny.
Anchor Centre Aberdeen delay compounded by Baird programme risks
The Baird Family Hospital, scheduled to open in September 2027, faces its own set of outstanding technical and safety assurance issues. Matthewson’s report identifies the main programme risks at Baird as its ventilation cooling strategy, electrical resilience, construction-phase water-management plan, derogations and associated testing and commissioning.
Critically, neither building can open without accreditation through the NHS Grampian-administered NHS Scotland Assure Key Stage Assurance Review (KSAR) process. Outstanding assurance findings across both facilities must be addressed before occupation can take place. The report was explicit: ‘There remain risks to the planned opening dates for both facilities. Work is focused on resolving the remaining technical, defect, commissioning and assurance matters and improving confidence in the forecast delivery dates.’
For the Anchor Centre specifically, the immediate priority is completing water-safety works and progressing commissioning and assurance requirements. Matthewson also confirmed that work is continuing to improve programme coordination, remedy defects and resolve commercial and contractual matters.
A new commercial agreement between NHS Grampian and Graham remains under negotiation, with solicitors for both sides working towards a formal settlement. The report described the process as well advanced, but noted that outstanding issues would have to be resolved, or the associated risks accepted, before an agreement could be signed. Graham declined to comment on the latest report.
NHS Grampian is maintaining a risk register reviewed monthly, supported by fortnightly risk-reduction meetings with the project’s principal supply chain partner. A separate register of technical and clinical risks that could remain after construction completion and handover is also being developed.
When complete, the Anchor Centre will cover 5,500 square metres and serve 65,000 outpatients annually, providing oncology, radiotherapy and haematology services alongside pharmacy, research and teaching facilities. The Baird Family Hospital will contain more than 1,000 rooms across 26,000 square metres, connecting to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary and Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital to deliver maternity, neonatal, gynaecology, breast and reproductive medicine services. The board’s next monthly risk-register review will be the immediate measure of whether the March 2027 handover date for the Anchor Centre is holding.
