Step up in orthopaedic care for Stockport Trust

 The company claims the new facility offers a quality of build and finish “as close to that of traditional build as is possible using modular construction techniques”. Jonathan Baillie reports.

Sited adjacent to a new hi-tech Cardiology and Surgical Unit (CSU) handed over to the Stockport NHS Foundation Trust in early 2007, the new 2,300 m2, four-storey orthopaedic and surgical facility was built by MTX under a ProCure21 contract for principal supply chain partner Laing O’Rourke. Completed to an extremely tight schedule, the unit opened to its first patients on 2 February this year, with the contractors on site for just 27 weeks. The largest modular health facility yet built by MTX (which constructed its first such building around 25 years ago), the new unit was designed with an external appearance, comprising brickwork at ground floor level, and an eye-catching render finish to the other three floors capped with Kingspan insulated panels, which very closely matches that of the neighbouring CSU.

Modular building not originally planned
Stockport NHS Foundation Trust director of estates Paul Holt and key projects manager Alan Wilde explained during a site visit that there was no original plan to specify a modular building. However, as two of the key project drivers for the Trust were to meet national NHS 18-week patient pathway “from GP referral to treatment” targets, and to have the new facility up and running as quickly as possible, a modular solution “became the most logical and practical choice”. Paul Holt explained: “When we first discussed the project with (architects) Taylor Young and Laing O’Rourke, it appeared that the construction sector was not offering anything really viable in terms of a building that would both meet our rapid completion timeframes and provide us with the high standard of medical facility we required. We produced a detailed performance specification, which stipulated, for instance, extremely low vibration response factors for the flooring in the first floor orthopaedic theatres, and MTX won the job principally because it developed a scheme which not only met all the specifications, but would also provide us with precisely what we required. “This really distinguished the company from the other modular building suppliers that tendered, whose typical standpoint tended to be: ‘This is our modular unit range; we can offer you a building within these particular constraints.’ In contrast, MTX’s refreshing can-do attitude was more one of: ‘You tell us what facilities and layout/design you require, and we will design and build you a really high quality modular building around these criteria.’” The new building’s ground floor houses a 16-bed ward, comprising three four-bed bays and four single en-suite bedrooms, while the first floor incorporates two fully equipped orthopaedic operating theatres for day surgery, complete with ultra-clean laminar flow canopies, a four-bed recovery ward, and ancillary areas including store rooms, anaesthesia areas and scrub rooms, plus staff rest rooms. On the second floor is a further 16-bed ward and ancillary areas, all equipped to meet DDA requirements, while the third floor houses a dedicated plant room.