Healthcare furniture specialist, Deanestor, has delivered a second hospital fit-out project in the Scottish Highlands.
The new Broadford Community Hospital on the Isle of Skye is part of a £40 m development by NHS Highland. The investment included the award-winning Badenoch & Strathspey Community Hospital in Aviemore, which opened towards the end of 2021, and was also fitted out by Deanestor. Delivered by hub North Scotland, and designed by Oberlanders Architects with Rural Design, the new 24-bedded hospital on Skye provides a range of services. The ground floor houses consultation and treatment rooms, the Emergency Department, physiotherapy and occupational therapy, chemotherapy, X-ray and ultrasound, and a midwife-led maternity facility. A renal dialysis unit – a new service for Skye established last year – ensures that patients can access treatment closer to home.
Deanestor loose and bespoke fitted furniture supplied for 142 rooms throughout the new healthcare facility included storage units, medicine cabinets, height-adjustable changing benches, bedroom wardrobes, foldaway beds in some inpatient rooms, nurse stations, and a main reception desk with a walnut wood-effect finish and contrasting ‘glacier white’ solid surface countertops. Bespoke joinery was also manufactured and installed for a new six-bay suite for chemotherapy and renal patients, to help create a more welcoming patient environment. This suite has large picture windows ‘with stunning sea views’. The white low-level counters are designed to house medical gases and vacuum outlets, and incorporate lighting, solid surface worktops, oak privacy screens, coat and bag storage, and IPS panels.
Peter Ramsay, Project director for hub North Scotland, said: “Broadford Hospital is a fantastic health facility which will bring huge benefits for the communities of Skye, Lochalsh, and South West Ross. We faced major challenges progressing construction during the pandemic, but the support of all the partners and the local community ensured we could deliver a hospital all can be proud of.”
A durable laminate finish was used for the storage solutions in two shades of blue to reflect the sky and the sea in the surrounding landscape, with darker blue specified for the inpatient bedrooms and utility areas, and ‘calming aqua’ for the treatment areas.
As part of the infection control strategy, infill panels were designed to fully integrate the wall cupboards up to the ceiling. Deanestor also fitted out the pharmacy with tall cabinets, worktops, dispensing cabinets with integrated trays, and metal drugs cabinets. A wide range of specialist equipment was also installed across the hospital – from physiotherapy bars to white boards, dispensers, sanitisers, and appliances.
