Interserve, the international support services and construction group, has won a high profile contract at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust for what will become the UK’s first stand-alone Cystic Fibrosis Unit.
Included in the £4.5 million contract are both construction and mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) elements. The project is the first major award for Interserve from the £100 million, five-year, Capital Investment Programme planned by Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust under the ProCure21+ framework.
Overall, the ProCure21+ framework covers works at the Queen’s Medical Centre, City campus and Ropewalk House, ranging from small refurbishment and maintenance projects to the construction of new projects such as the new two-storey Cystic Fibrosis Unit with associated landscaping.
The purpose of the new unit will be to provide modern high standard treatment, care and support facilities for patients and families, with the intention of management being to set a precedent as a centre of excellence for all future Cystic Fibrosis centres in the UK.
Located next to the site’s Radiotherapy building and replacing an existing car park, the compact new building will form a physical link with the existing hospital.
The scheme, designed by P&HS Architects, comprises a total of sixteen en-suite bedroom and living spaces, seven outpatient exam/consultant rooms, treatment rooms, a physiotherapy gym area, a training kitchen and external exercise areas, and open plan staff office areas. A large double height space upon entrance, with views out onto a private screened garden space, will also be provided. Much of the funding for the project has come from the support of the Nottingham Hospitals charity.
The evolution of the scheme’s design has been an inclusive and consultative process involving healthcare professionals, patients and their families. Indeed, even Facebook has played a part in hosting a forum of patients’ ideas in order to inform the brief right from the project’s earliest stages. As a result, the new building will include many patient-conceived spaces as well as a modern interior utilising IT connectivity and innovative materials.
The Interserve Engineering Services team has engaged with the preferred lighting manufacturer to look at enhancing the lighting scheme to enrich patients’ experience and to meet the sustainable targets of the scheme.
An interesting and innovative element of patient treatment will incorporate training schemes to educate inpatients on the most beneficial diet for their condition using the scheme’s specially constructed training kitchen. Enhanced audio visual packages will enable live cooking demonstrations given to patients to be transmitted to other patients’ rooms from the kitchen.
In a bid to reduce disruption to the Trust’s activities and accommodate the compact site’s limited access, Interserve’s site and procurement teams have minimised deliveries through intelligent off-site construction using Metsec’s pre-panelised external walling system.
The Cystic Fibrosis scheme started on site in April 2013 with overall completion expected by March 2014. The new unit will serve more than 250 patients from across Nottinghamshire and the surrounding counties, giving them a space of their own and transforming their experience when staying in hospital. The centre has been named the ‘Wolfson Cystic Fibrosis Centre’ after a huge £700,000 donation by the well-known philanthropic Wolfson Family Charitable Trust. In addition, more than £2.1m has been raised in total for the project by Nottingham Hospitals Charity.