Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust has used a Portakabin solution to provide a new, specialist accident and emergency treatment facility at Stoke Mandeville Hospital.
Taking just eight weeks to manufacture and install; the 126sq m Rapid Assessment and Treatment centre contains five patient bays, a nurse’s station, compliant toilet facilities, and a utility area.
The building is there to ensure patients are seen and assessed as soon as they arrive at the hospital, no waiting in long queues or on ambulances
Working with a very tight building footprint, the centre was installed directly outside the hospital’s A&E department.
By pre-empting any initial groundwork, the six modules were able to be craned in while the hospital remained fully open at one of the NHS’s busiest periods of the year.
And the building was fully occupied and operating to capacity within one week of handover.
“The building is there to ensure patients are seen and assessed as soon as they arrive at the hospital, no waiting in long queues or on ambulances,” said general manager for Portakabin Refurbished, Graeme Robinson.
“As healthcare design specialists, we understand how efficient triage means those patients needing urgent care are identified quickly.
“We moved at great speed on this one and delivered the centre within 12 weeks; four weeks to plan and design, four weeks to manufacture and four weeks on site.
“This is construction at its most efficient and involved a significant number of decision-making meetings inside a very-short timeframe.”