A £10m project has been delivered by Premier Modular for Ashford and St Peter’s Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, creating a new 62-bed priority assessment unit at St Peter’s Hospital.
Supported by delivery partner, Claritas, the new facility was delivered using offsite construction methods, which helped to reduce the overall programme time by nine months.
Designed by BDP and delivery architects, P+HS, the new space purposefully reflects the existing environment, while matching the hospital’s modern needs, ensuring seamless integration.
The facility is linked to the emergency department and has 62 patient bays alongside nurse stations, staff rooms, seminar rooms, a laundry and clean utilities, and kitchenettes for staff.
It also provides updated technology, with datacomms, security systems, CCTV, and nurse call systems fully integrated with the main hospital.
“This project shows how striking and unique architectural design, that is also in keeping with its surroundings, can be successfully married with efficient delivery via offsite construction, bringing many benefits including speed and quality,” said Akshay Khera, architecture director at BDP.
The offsite solution was engineered to fit seamlessly into the existing hospital, maintaining flows between existing facilities and the new unit, with continuous level floors throughout.
The new unit will help to meet increasing demand for services and address the COVID-19 backlog
Externally, it is finished with vertical rainscreen cladding in grey and brickwork to complement adjacent buildings.
To support the trust’s sustainability targets, the building envelope has been designed to be thermally efficient to reduce running costs and carbon emissions.
It incorporates technology such as solar control glass, integral brise soleil sun shading, and a building energy management system (BeMS) to optimise energy usage.
Andrew Grimes, assistant director of property and capital development at the trust, said: “This project responds to the urgent national need to increase capacity in emergency care.
“Offsite construction allows us to add space on our hospital campus more quickly and we estimate that Premier reduced time on site by around six months and the overall programme by nine months.
“Less time on site also means less disruption to patient care, which is always a priority for hospital building projects.”
Dan Allison, divisional director at Premier Modular, added: “This scheme was ideally suited to offsite construction as it allowed the trust to meet an urgent need to expand capacity for emergency care and the development of a very-constrained site.
“The new building has been constructed in a courtyard and close to the emergency department, which required careful logistical planning from our project team.
“We maximised construction and fitout work offsite to radically reduce disruption to patient care and were only on site for around six months to produce a facility for the trust.”
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- Companies:
- Building Design Partnership BDP
- Ashford and St Peter's Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
- Premier Modular
- Claritas Group