ARCHITECTURE, DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION ARTICLES

Paul Moores, a founding director of FBW Group based in Kampala, Uganda, since 1998, describes the practice’s work, following initial design by another firm, to lead the African design and technical team to take forward a specialist postgraduate medical and research training centre in Malawi’s second biggest city.

John Gregory, a former journalist, and a partner at Toronto-based CGC Educational Communications, describes work to design and build and what is said to be the world’s first organ regeneration laboratory, at Toronto General Hospital in Canada. A senior redevelopment director at the new facility says the procedures undertaken there will ‘change what is done across the planet’.

Amid shifting budget constraints and pressing Net Zero targets, M&E designers and architects are re-evaluating the way they approach the design of healthcare facilities. However, says Steve Richmond, head of Marketing and Technical at Rehau Building Solutions, it is critical that these new considerations do not impact the wellbeing of patients and staff. Here he discusses the importance of instilling healthy design principles ‘to facilitate truly sustainable growth for the sector’.

In September’s HEJ we ran the first half of an article on an interesting and forthright discussion at a roundtable event held in mid-June at the Leeds offices of solicitors, Clarion. This covered some of the key elements in, and far-reaching ramifications of, the Building Safety Act 2022, which came into force in October 2023 – both for the healthcare construction chain, and healthcare engineering and estate management personnel. Here HEJ editor, Jonathan Baillie, reports on the event’s second half.

An estimated one million patient samples are transported by pneumatic tube systems in British hospitals every week. Ensuring that these samples and other critical items arrive at their intended destination quickly and without fail is the job of the companies that supply and install these increasingly complex networks of plastic tubes. Here, Tom Hughes, managing director of Aerocom (UK), explains how pneumatic tube systems work, and how they have become the ‘invisible heroes’ behind driving efficiencies in the nation’s health service.

The Building Safety Act 2022, which became law in October 2023 following Dame Judith Hackitt’s Building a Safer Future Report and the lessons from London’s Grenfell Tower Fire, is expected to profoundly impact all players within the construction supply chain. It also places additional responsibilities on those who operate and maintaining certain buildings – including many in healthcare – for ensuring all aspects of their safety and compliance. A recent roundtable in Leeds saw some of the key considerations for the healthcare construction supply chain and the healthcare EFM profession discussed. HEJ editor, Jonathan Baillie, reports.

Mark Gibson, Managing director – Healthcare, at Sir Robert McAlpine, looks at some of the considerable benefits that a growing arsenal of digital construction tools can bring – both to designers and builders of healthcare facilities and the end-client – be it an NHS Trust or private healthcare provider. He stresses that the data collected during project delivery can also be highly valuable to the end-user once the building has been completed.

Richard Mazuch, an architect, the director of Design, Research and Innovation for Arcadis, and the founder of TH!NK – the research and development arm of IBI (with whom Arcadis merged in late 2022), discusses some of the key learnings from paediatric healthcare design – in both physical and mental healtcare settings – for areas such as teaching, and vice-versa.

Jordan Bartlett, a Facility & Seismic Resilience consultant at Proactive Design in Australia, considers how those responsible for keeping plant and equipment safe and secure in healthcare facilities need – where their region is at risk of such occurrences – to prepare a Business Continuity Plan to cater for natural disasters such as floods and earthquakes, with a particular focus on experience in Australia and New Zealand.

Sarah Waller CBE, an Associate Specialist at the Association for Dementia Studies, University of Worcester, and her colleague, Research assistant, Jennifer Bray, discuss the development, launch, and thinking behind a new ‘toolkit’ designed to help primary care facilities improve the physical environment for all patients – including neurodiverse individuals.

Over the next 3-4 years, a number of the earlier hospital PFI projects will come to an end, and in the next two decades, a significant further tranche will reach ‘handback’ stage. NHS Trusts with PFI-funded buildings have been advised to start preparing early – particularly by ensuring they have a clear picture of the condition of the assets soon to return to their ownership, and getting any significant defects addressed now. HEJ editor, Jonathan Baillie, met by ‘Teams’ with Ian Daccus, Estates and Facilities Strategic Partnership director at Capita, to get his ‘take’ on the ensuing challenges and opportunities.

Without its staff, the NHS cannot function. The ‘triple whammy’ of Brexit, COVID, and over a decade of austerity, are placing even more pressure on an over-stretched healthcare system, raising more concerns about staff wellbeing. Sophie Crocker, Architect at White Arkitekter, discusses how healthcare workplace design can contribute to staff wellbeing with four examples from the Scandinavian practice’s work in Sweden.

In the March 2024 HEJ, Consultant Medical Microbiologist, Michael Weinbren, head of Estates Risk and Environment at Belfast Health and Social Care Trust, George McCracken, Susanne Lee of independent public microbiology consultancy, Leegionella, and Consultant Medical Microbiologist at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, Dr Teresa Inkster, argued that ensuring patient safety in new healthcare facilities requires a markedly different approach to design and construction. Here, in the second half of the article, they discuss some of the key issues requiring particular consideration against this backdrop to ensure a successful project outcome.

Thomas Cosker, associate at engineering consultancy, Buro Happold, shares insights on designing the London Institute of Medical Sciences’ new laboratory. The consultancy delivered MEP and lab design services, as well as sustainability, civil, structural, acoustic, vibration and fire engineering, to create ‘world-class technical facilities’ that now house over 40 different scientific research group

Three microbiologists and a highly experienced EFM professional argue that ensuring patient safety in new healthcare facilities requires a markedly different approach to design and construction.

A new pathology laboratory building at Leeds’s St James’s University Hospital that will serve patients across West Yorkshire was officially opened in September 2023. The highly automated facility will serve hospitals across the region, avoiding considerable duplication, and significantly speeding diagnosis and treatment for many thousands of patients annually. HEJ editor, Jonathan Baillie, visited the new Centre for Laboratory Medicine to find out more.

Business management consultancy, The PSC’s recent development of a so-called ‘Blueprint’ approach to designing estates reportedly both meets population needs, and enables integration of care.

Sean Woodhead, associate architect at BDP, looks at how the design of Heatherwood Hospital in Berkshire has helped support positive outcomes at this specialist, planned care facility.

With the issue of addressing the risks from RAAC planking in public buildings such as hospitals and schools very much in the spotlight in recent months, Alister Broadberry, Area director for the Eastern Counties at Morgan Sindall Construction, describes the business’s recent work for a Norfolk acute hospital Trust to help keep their structural RAAC planks safely, swiftly, and securely propped ‘for years to come’.

The New Hospital Programme’s Senior Responsible Owner, Natalie Forrest, updated Healthcare Estates 2023 delegates on progress with the Programme, and discussed the Hospital 2.0 model.