Patrick Morrison, Pre-contract manager for healthcare at NG Bailey, explores why modern methods of construction are, as he puts it, ‘key to the future success of construction in healthcare’.
The UK Government has committed to finance the largest hospital building programme in a generation, giving the green light to more than 40 new hospital projects across the country. Six projects have already been given the go-ahead, and a further 30 could be built during the next decade. This is an ambitious programme, and in order to achieve it within the next decade, NG Bailey and our colleagues across the sector need to rethink our approach to how we design and build new hospitals. This is where modern methods of construction (MMC) come in.
Why now?
Modern methods of construction have been used by the construction sector for many years. At NG Bailey we have been pioneering the use of MMC across many of our projects, including in the healthcare sector, since 2000, so why are we now talking about it being the future of the sector? Well, the Nightingale Hospitals which were developed as part of the Government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic are just one example of where MMC come into their own. In an unprecedented set of circumstances, where time was of the essence, NG Bailey and partners across the sector were able to construct five field hospitals across the country in just a matter of weeks. A big part of this delivery was offsite manufacturing, which enabled us to design, manufacture, and install, complex services infrastructure serving over 2,000 new hospital beds in less than four weeks from a standing start – all while maintaining safe social distancing measures.
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