MTX has recently provided East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust with four new orthopaedic operating at Canterbury’s Kent and Canterbury Hospital to enable it to accommodate an increasing intake of patients requiring such surgery.
The £15.8 m, 48-week project, undertaken in phases, was completed in July. To proceed with the delivery of the four new theatres, MTX first had to construct a new medical physics building, and remove asbestos from, and then demolish, an existing office block, as well as refurbish a full day care surgery department.
The new theatre complex links directly into the hospital’s current ward department, in close proximity to the recently completed day care surgery unit. In all, 42 modules were used for the new theatres. The single-storey facility houses the four orthopaedic theatres – each of with dedicated ‘prep’ and anaesthetic facilities, a bright and spacious reception and waiting area, an eight-bed bed recovery bay, offices, a theatre store, staff rest area, and other
ancillary facilities. A dedicated top floor plant room supports the new facilities. Each theatre is equipped with a 3 m MAT ultraclean canopy, with integrated multi-movement pendants. The latter allowed MTX to maximise the canopy size, while ensuring that all the theatres fitted within the site constraints.
Four dedicated duplex pumps were provided, plus a triplex vacuum and triplex surgical air plant, with duplex filters – all designed to provide a high level of resilience. The building is fully mechanically ventilated, and the design included five air-handling units – one for each theatre, and one for the recovery and ancillary space. The existing system was also modified to refeed some of the refurbished areas.
The project was accelerated by prefabricating elements of the build, including pump skids.
The modules were constructed on top of a cast in-situ ground floor slab, ensuring compliance with the structural response factor. MTX added: “The slab was power floated to the highest level of accuracy (SR1), to ensure a perfect finish.”
