BES has completed the first phase of a pioneering project to design and construct a new pharmacy and aseptic suite at Weston Park Hospital in Sheffield.
The project includes clinical trial and Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products facilities that will enable the hospital to provide gene therapy treatments on site.
The project is BES’s first for Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and it is being delivered in two co-ordinated phases to enable the existing pharmacy to remain operational while the new one is built.
As principal designer and contractor for the project, BES is responsible for all design, engineering and construction of the new facilities, which are located on the hospital’s sixth and seventh floors.
During the design phase, the team was able to offer improvements to the client’s proposed layout to improve the flow and reconfigure the rooms.
Phase One has involved strip out and refurbishment of redundant office space to create the new pharmacy, which includes Grade C and Grade D clean rooms, with all contingent building services, including specialist air handling requirements and air locks.
Among the inherent challenges of completing the project on the sixth floor of a live hospital, the BES team had to consider the existing live services to ensure any additions and modifications to services in the area did not interrupt supply in the existing pharmacy or other locations in the hospital.
The logistics of the project have also proved challenging, with all materials and equipment having to be lifted to the sixth and seventh floor via an external hoist.
With construction of the first phase now complete, the hospital’s pharmacy team will be moved across to its new location and BES will refurbish the existing pharmacy as a new clinical trial and Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products aseptic suite.
The second phase will also involve complex engineering to deliver controlled isolator cleanrooms and avoid any risk of contamination.