MTX, a modern methods of construction specialist, has created and delivered a 32-bed short-stay ward above London’s busiest A&E Department in Northwick Park Hospital.
The UK-based construction company said that this £20m project was the most complex build programme it has ever undertaken.
The short-stay ward for Northwick Park Hospital
The new unit incorporates 32 short-stay beds and ancillary areas in Northwick Park Hospital, situated on the outskirts of Harrow in North West London.
Northwick Park Hospital is managed by the London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust.
We have one of the biggest and busiest A&Es in the country so this is a welcome and much-needed addition to our capacity
The new state-of-the-art short-stay ward is designed to enhance the quality of care provided to patients at Northwick Park, and is part of an NHS England initiative to meet the growing demands for general and acute beds across the country.
Trust Chief Executive, Pippa Nightingale said: “We have one of the biggest and busiest A&Es in the country so this is a welcome and much-needed addition to our capacity.”
“It’s crucial to maintain flow through the hospital so we have enough beds. An enormous amount of work goes on behind the scenes every day to ensure this happens. The new unit will help us better manage this,” Nightingale concluded.
The build
The programme included designing and installing mechanical modules pre-manufactured offsite to control the ventilation and the environment of the wards, with a dedicated integrated plant facility provided within the new building as part of the M&E specification.
A total of 32 structural steel modules manufactured offsite were used to construct the new ward on a steel deck installed on existing concrete stub columns that were part of the original A&E Department build.
The challenging location in the middle of the busy hospital site required the use of one of Europe’s heaviest lifting tower cranes, around 40 metres high and with a ‘reach’ of 80 metres.
Every component of the new ward had to be lifted onto the construction deck, including 200 tonnes of steel and almost 2000 construction boards.
Over the course of 150 days, the site team successfully completed more than 2000 lifts with zero safety incidents.
The new first-floor construction links to the existing hospital buildings via a 20-metre-long suspended connecting corridor
MTX constructed additional site infrastructure including high-strength concrete foundations and piling to support the tower crane.
Further, MTX built an ultra-strong crash deck above the entrance to the A&E to protect staff and visitors, and prioritised the safety of its own staff and contractors by building a pedestrian bridge over a busy road on site to enable continuous access to the build location.
Also, the new first-floor construction links to the existing hospital buildings via a 20-metre-long suspended connecting corridor. Two more 10-metre bridges link to existing stairwells to provide access for staff and visitors.
Project lead, Ian Brook, said: “There were a number of critical factors that had to be considered throughout the build – working on top of London’s busiest A&E department, interacting with the public and staff, and ensuring the large number of deliveries and vehicle movements did not impact on the ambulance routes and access to the clinical areas.”
Using modern methods of construction (MMC) and Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DfMA) principles enables MTX to deliver new facilities faster, safer, greener and more cost effectively than with conventional building methods.
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