Home » Insights » Case Studies » St Mary’s Hospital, Isles of Scilly
Situated on the Isles of Scilly, St Mary’s Community Hospital provides inpatient and outpatient clinics for the 2,300 people that live on the Cornish islands. In 2024 the hospital successfully secured funding to improve the existing building and provide better healthcare with a new integrated health and social care facility.
Premier Modular was appointed by Community 1st Cornwall on behalf of the Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust to deliver a modular solution to enhance existing facilities with a modular extension to the current building, and an additional purpose-built care home that seamlessly integrated with the hospital building. Community 1st Cornwall needed to partner with a company which not only had the ability to deliver a high-quality and sustainable building but could also handle the complex logistics of delivering and building on the offshore location.
The hospital extension was designed using 29 modules in total. 17 of the modules were used for a residential care home with beds and accessible en-suite facilities. The remaining modules made up the hospital extension, comprising rooms for NHS inpatient beds, a relative room, utility room, day room, clinical admin spaces, and a modern maternity suite.
Due to the geographical position of the hospital, we had to take environmental considerations into account. The building was close to the coast, so adaptations were included in the build, including galvanising all metal elements of the building, using windows that could withstand strong winds and water and external rockwool with a thin coat render on the outside for fire resistance and increased resilience. The modules were positioned on a concrete podium that was at level with the hospital to enable ease of access when moving patients from the care home to the hospital.
The island is classed as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, so it was vital for the new modular extension to blend seamlessly into the existing buildings surrounding it. We used a pitched roof and thin coat render system to ensure that the external design of the building was in keeping with the neighbouring architecture and also met planning requirements.
Delivering and installing large, heavy modules to a small island has its unique challenges.
The size and weight of the modules meant that careful consideration was needed for both the shipping vessel and on-island access. To allow for the shipping vessels capacity limits, some modules were secured below deck and others were transported on deck. This approach also helped us manoeuvre around the island once ashore.
With only one suitable shipping vessel available, and winter fast approaching, we had to ship the modules to the island in a full-scale, single-phase delivery. All 29 modules and two cargo containers were delivered to the island in one go over four days, co-ordinated with favourable tides and weather conditions.
Offloading the modules also proved challenging. With no cranes based on the island, we arranged for specialist cranes to be delivered in advance to move modules from the storage field to the hospital site. A tight boatyard location and the August bank holiday, which saw the island busy with tourists, meant we had limited hours to complete offloading each day and shifting winds the following day added further delays, requiring repositioning of the landing craft to safely deliver the modules.
Despite these complex logistical hurdles, the entire delivery and installation phase was completed successfully and safely within the specified timeframe.
Access the full case study by completing the form.
Skip to content