Healthcare
Building future-ready health estates
Healthcare has long been a cornerstone of the community, and the National Health Service (NHS) remains the largest employer in the UK. NHS teams in England, Scotland and Wales are providing frontline patient-led care from extensive estates and facilities, that can contain anything from a temporary provision to those with Grade-listed status.
Healthcare is a complex sector, facing multi-faceted challenges ranging from policy and governance and funding and resource allocation to demographic and social inequalities around access to public health and preventative medicine.
Our journey with our customers is underpinned by our intelligent solutions approach, identifying the unique requirements of the project and creating practical healthcare solutions that respond to the needs identified in future capital investment programmes such as Hospital 2.0 and the New Hospital Programme. As well as ensuring compliance to the requirements of new legislation such as the new Procurement Act, Building Safety Act and Net Zero Targets.
Our teams have delivered acute, mental health and community healthcare projects for NHS Trusts across the UK. Ranging from brand new building construction, change of use, refurbishment or tackling challenges such as RAAC. These solutions also include using digital technologies or modern methods of construction (MMC) to increase construction efficiency.
Working in a busy, live environment
Healthcare services are in operation 24/7 and often one of the first concerns from healthcare teams is the safe continuation of services and minimal disruption whilst construction works are in progress. Early engagement with our clients and this community at the design and preconstruction stages means that we can mitigate disruption, noise or provide solutions such as alternative vehicular or pedestrian routes. The creation of the projects Perfect Delivery Charter at this stage details the customer experience expected and a means at which the team can measure if they have delivered these outcomes during construction.
Our team worked closely with the St Richard’s Hospital, part of University Hospitals Sussex Foundation Trust to deliver a £4m outpatients' unit to meet an increased demand for hospital services. The solution was a modular constructed building that met the Trust’s financial, environmental and timescale goals, but did mean that the delivery of 14 modular units to the heart of the hospital’s estate required meticulous planning. But what does that sort of planning look like in reality? In this video you can see just how early engagement with the customer enabled the hospital to remain fully operational.
Full case study: St Richard’s Hospital, West Sussex
Bringing frontline medical teams on the journey
Engaging frontline medical teams is an intrinsic part of our healthcare projects. This work enables us to understand first-hand what our stakeholders and their end-users need and where adaptions need to happen, these can be managed collaboratively and efficiently.
As part of the Resource Centre project at Fulbourn Hospital, which was delivered for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust, the team worked with over 50 medical stakeholders at the design, build and soft landings phases.
The new Resource Centre co-located teams from existing departments such as physiotherapy, art, and music therapy and the pharmacy team. Over 25 people working in a new location, each with their own unique requirements, in a building to be used by patients who required intensive mental health support.
The project team welcomed hospital employees to site throughout the construction process so they could share the plans and drawings in the context of the building itself. The team were able to make changes in consultation with individuals having learnt more about their roles, examples included the relocation of sockets or shelving as they discussed the specialist equipment the teams used. The experience meant that once the building was in operation, the teams were familiar and comfortable with their new workplace and could focus on patient care.
Full case study: Fulbourn Hospital
Estate planning for a sustainable and adaptable future
The NHS faces the dual challenge of balancing the cost of construction and maintenance, with sustainability goals and the creation of adaptable spaces to accommodate evolving healthcare demands.
Like many organisations the NHS is committed to ambitious targets to achieve a net zero business, targeting Scope 1 emissions by 2040 and indirect Scope 2 and 3 emissions by 2045. However, as a decentralised organisation, each Trust is also setting additional goals based on the current efficiency of their estate.
In 2022/23, 42% of the estate had been built before 1985, with 14% of the estates pre-dating the NHS itself. Yet given the vast estates at their disposal, the healthcare sector in partnership with the tried and tested experience of the construction industry have a significant opportunity to demonstrate real leadership in the decarbonisation of healthcare assets.
CarboniCa is our intelligent carbon reduction tool that measures whole life carbon emissions at a buildings design, construction and entire lifecycle. We use this tool to support our healthcare customers to make evidence-based decisions as to the most effective routes to decarbonise their healthcare estates. Reviewing decisions such as the choice to build new or to refurbish and the selection of regenerative or low carbon materials or processes.
Newmarket Community Diagnostic Centre (CDC) is a £7.8m project for West Suffolk Foundation Trust, which will bring MRI, CT, x-ray, ultrasound, lung function and cardiology facilities into the local community. The building also includes recovery bays, offices, staff changing areas and utility rooms.
Time, cost, design and carbon reduction were the four areas of importance to the customer as defined by their Perfect Delivery Charter.
The team worked collaboratively with the procurement, client and consultant teams to establish a solution for the building that incorporated modern methods of construction and modular construction that met the building’s purpose and client needs. The team also used CarboniCa to identity a further 237.9 tonnes of carbon that could be removed from the construction process.
Read about the preconstruction journey: Newmarket CDC
Managing community stakeholders with unique needs
Our team work closely with Trusts and local supporting services and organisations to deliver projects that address health inequities in the community. Socioeconomic factors, such as income, education, and housing, significantly influence health outcome. As does access to preventative measures that will ease the burden on hospitals.
Gorton Community Hub is a £20.3m project that innovatively brings together Gorton Medical Centre GP practice and a pharmacy, alongside the local social care team, Job Centre Plus, Manchester Adult Education Service and Manchester One, who provide housing and financial advisory services. The aim of the project was to bring together all these services who were each positioned in buildings across the area into one carbon-efficient, modern space.
The team managed 25 stakeholder relationships to establish their organisations requirements for the building and engaged with the local public to communicate designs, benefits to the Hub space and the services that would be available to them such as this preview/progress video. As a result of the collaboration, £16m in social value was created for the local economy and in line with the customers objectives 700 tonnes of carbon saved by providing lower carbon solutions throughout the project.
Further information: Gorton Community Hub
Doing the right thing as part of the local community
Many of our employees and supply chain live and work near the projects they’re delivering, so being a part of the local community and achieving positive outcomes for local people is of personal importance.
At North Manchester General Hospital our teams worked to complete a £36m multi-storey car park. As a revenue stream for the hospital, they were also keen for this project to be more than ‘just a car park’ as it was the first in a wider masterplan of work to improve health and wellbeing for local residents over the next 10-15 years.
The team achieved a £19.04m return on social value, identifying opportunities they knew would engage the community and contribute to the Trust’s long-term goals. Activities included:
- A community tea party for local charity, Manchester Cares – the event bought together residents young and old to enjoy locally grown produce
- A new ICU garden, which was completed with the help of our supply chain, a space for the hospital which could be used by families and friends visiting loved ones in the ICU
- Donation of white goods to a local charity, Mustard Tree, where they could be donated to disadvantaged families
- Volunteering at The Bread & Butter Thing to package and deliver fresh food and packed lunches to those in need across Greater Manchester
- A £10,000 project to improve the security at FC United’s Training Ground, as part of this the team also donated 286 volunteer hours
Find out more about the project: North Manchester General Hospital Car Park
Case Studies
