MTX has delivered a new theatre complex for Kent and Canterbury Hospital.
Commissioned by East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust, the project was completed over a number of phases.
To proceed with the delivery of four new orthopaedic operating theatres, MTX first had to construct a medical physics building, remove asbestos, demolish an existing office block, and refurbish a full daycare surgery department.
The new theatre complex links directly into the hospital’s current ward and is in close proximity to the recently-completed daycare surgery facility.
In total, 42 modules were used in total for the new build.
The single-storey facility houses the four orthopaedic operating theatres, each with dedicated prep and anaesthetic area as well as a bright and spacious reception and waiting area, eight-bed recovery bay, offices, theatre store, staff rest areas, and all necessary ancillaries.
A dedicated top-floor plant room was also provided to support the scheme.
And each of the theatres is equipped with 3m MAT ultra clean canopies, with integrated multi-movement pendants.
The integrated pendants allowed MTX to maximise the size of the canopy, while ensuring that all theatres fit within the site constraints.
Four dedicated duplex pumps were also provided, as well as a triplex vacuum and triplex surgical air plant, with duplex filters to provide a high level of resilience.
The building is completely mechanically ventilated, and the design included five AHUs; one for each theatre and another for the recovery and ancillary space.
The project was accelerated by prefabricating elements of the build, including pump skids.
And the modules were constructed on top of a cast isitu ground floor slab, ensuring compliance with the structural response factor.
This slab was power floated to the highest level of accuracy (SR1), to ensure a perfect finish.
The day surgery refurbishment works had to be carried out within a strict timescale when the building was free of patients and staff. Therefore, works were carried out after hours and at weekends.
A spokesman for MTX said: “From this project we learnt that the integrating pendants within the canopies allows you to fit bigger canopies into a small room and reduces the risk of clashes with other services when installing on site.
“In addition, we concluded that the co-ordination of all the ceiling hatches within the theatre room is quite difficult. From our lessons learnt and best practice meeting following this project, we identified that it may be worthwhile to consider the use of washable ceiling tiles on future similar projects, to give better flexibility.”
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