In partnership with electrical contractor W Portsmouth & Co, Ascom has been awarded the contract to supply and install healthcare communication technology to the BEACH (Births, Emergency Care and Critical Care, and Child Health) Building at the Royal Bournemouth Hospital.
The 23,000 m2, six-storey BEACH Building will provide a new maternity unit, a children’s unit, an enhanced emergency department, a 30-bed capacity critical care unit, and a purpose-designed pathology hub. Its creation will make the Royal Bournemouth Hospital the major emergency hospital for Dorset. Planned to open in Autumn 2024, the BEACH Building forms part of a £250 m transformation programme by the University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust.
Ascom will provide its ‘end-to-end’ digital smart nurse call solution to the project, including Myco 3 smartphones with mobile attack alarm software and near-real-time location tracking, and fixed panic attack alarm technology. It will also install an infant tracking system – via which by means of infant safe tag, which features anti-tamper technology, staff will be able to monitor the movements of all babies under its care. The Wi-Fi and RF-enabled tracking system will be integrated within the CCTV and security doors of the hospital.
Senior account manager for Ascom, David Walters, said: “When it’s completed, the Emergency Department alone at the BEACH Building will be larger than the current facilities in Poole and at the Royal Bournemouth Hospital combined. It’s a huge project in scale and ambition – its footprint will be the equivalent of 115 tennis courts. The technology that will be used at BEACH is state-of-the-art, and will help with clinical decision-making, workflow, and the security of both staff and patients.”
Ascom and W Portsmouth & Co. previously worked together on another flagship NHS project at Chase Farm Hospital in Enfield, part of the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust.
The main contractor for the BEACH Building is Integrated Health Projects.
