Priority Assessment Unit, St Peter’s Hospital

						
							Solution						

							Permanent

						
							Size						

							64 bed unit

						
							Programme						

							Under six months

The Brief

Ashford and St Peter’s Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust had a requirement for a 62-bed Priority Assessment Unit at St Peter’s Hospital in Chertsey to support the increased demand for emergency care.

The Challenges

Offsite construction will allow the development of a very constrained site. The new building will be located in a courtyard and close to the Emergency Department which will require careful logistical planning.

The building solution has been engineered to maintain patient flows between the existing facilities and the new unit, with continuous level floors throughout.

Premier worked to a short programme for this project to allow the Trust to meet an urgent need to expand capacity for emergency care. The time on site was reduced to just over six months which reduced disruption to patient care.

This project responds to the urgent national need to increase capacity in emergency care. Offsite construction allowed us to add space on our hospital campus more quickly. Premier reduced time on site by around six months and the overall programme by nine months. Less time on site meant less disruption to patient care, which is always a priority for hospital building projects.

Premier had the capabilities to meet the technical constraints of the site very well, particularly to provide seamless connections at two levels to maintain patient flows and allow us to move beds easily between this building and the existing facilities. Premier was also the only offsite specialist who was able to meet our module height requirement without the addition of ramps. And the lightweight nature of steel-framed modular construction minimised groundworks which had time and cost savings.

Andrew Grimes – Assistant Director of Property and Capital Development
Ashford & St Peter's Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

The Solution

Premier was appointed main contractor for the £10m project, supported by its delivery partner.

This fast-track building project reduced the programme by around nine months compared to in-situ construction. The speed of offsite manufacturing and fitting out allowed earlier occupation ahead of the busy winter period, supporting the increased demand for emergency care.

The project was procured through the Crown Commercial Service framework.

The Facility

The new, two-storey assessment unit is next to the Emergency Department and accommodates:

62 patient bays

Nurse stations

Staff rooms

Seminar rooms

Laundry

Clean utilities

Kitchenettes.

The building was fitted with medical gases, datacomms, security systems, CCTV, nurse call systems, and fully integrated with the main hospital. Externally, the assessment unit was finished in vertical rainscreen cladding in shades of grey and brickwork to complement adjacent buildings.

AN ENERGY-EFFICIENT BUILDING SOLUTION

The building envelope was designed to be highly thermally efficient to reduce running costs and carbon emissions, and the picture windows have solar control glass and integral brise soleil sunshading. A building energy management system (BeMS) optimises energy use.