Brunel Building will have lasting impact

The new building, which is due to admit its first patients this month, is also targeted with delivering the country’s most sustainable construction of its type. Keith Hutton, project director for Carillion, gives Health Estate Journal his personal standpoint on this ambitious healthcare project.

The state-of-the-art Brunel Building has been designed to offer patients the very best in facilities, and to enable staff to deliver exceptional healthcare. The 800-bed acute hospital is situated on a vast 27-hectare brownfield site within the restricted limits of the existing Southmead Hospital. Located approximately two kilometres north of Bristol city centre, the new hospital will provide world-class healthcare services to a local population of around half a million residents in and around Bristol, North Somerset, and South Gloucestershire. Upon completion, the hospital will offer a wide range of specialist regional services, including A&E, neurosciences, plastic surgery, orthopaedics, pathology, and renal services, receiving referrals both from all over the UK and from overseas.

The development is a key part of a major plan to modernise health services and hospital facilities in the region, stemming from a lengthy public consultation that revealed concerns about the cost and resource pressures faced by local services. Problems highlighted by the consultation included the poor configuration of acute services, both around Bristol and within the area’s healthcare facilities themselves; unsatisfactory access arrangements for patients; poor performance in terms of environmental sustainability, and overall difficulties in responding to national requirements. The new hospital has been developed to overcome these challenges in a refreshing and very patient-focused manner.