New South West Acute Hospital

This project complied of an extensive civil enabling works pack-age included full ground stabilising, piled foundations and 20m suspension bridge. The basement of the building house the back of house function including plant rooms, laundry, stores and facilities. The basement also incorporated a service tunnel which acted as the life line to the building. All goods in/out came through the service tunnel and into the service lifts to feed the various departments & facilities.

Separate to the basement is an energy center which housed wood pellet boilers and Oil backup boilers. This provided power for the entire facility. The hospital consisted of 312 single bed ensuite ward which overlooked Lough Wolfe. The hospital was designed as a private room hospital for infection control reasons. The ward block is of the highest quality finish and exceeds the HTM requirements. Each bedroom, consisted of medical grade bed head trunking which incorporated 3 gases, power data and lighting. Vinyl floor, vinyl wall covering, Entertainment systems, interstitial blinds, Hillron hoist covering both the bed and the ensuite. All furniture is built-in and flush with the walls. The bed head wall is finished in a hardwood cladding with the wardrobes all built into either side of the bed for ease of access. All rooms are fully serviced with the latest entertainment systems and WIFI. All works had to comply with HTM’s and anti ligature requirements, specifically windows, doors, ironmongery, fixtures and fittings etc. Each room was carefully designed and constructed to stringent anti ligature standards throughout the hospital and off course within the mental health section.

The clinical side of the hospital consists of over 50 different departments which included a full A&E department service by Air Ambulance. The intensive care unit and critical care unit incorporate the latest technology with double and single Maquet pedants. The ICU and CCU have all ensuite beds in order to achieve the highest level of infection control. All surfaces are designed flush to ensure ease of maintenance and clean-ing. There are five operating theatres and associated preparation areas. One of the theatres incorporated a Laminar Flow canopy. The Hospital also has a state of the art imagery department (MRI, CT, X-Ray). The MRI scanner is enclosed in a faraday cage. All other imagery rooms are enclosed in lead. The Hospital also incorporated a state of the art ECG, Echo and coronary care facility; all equipped with the latest and most modern equipment available. The maternity department consisted of four delivery suites all backed up with the necessary private room accommodation for patient comfort. Respiratory, dental, physical therapy, endoscopy, Day services are some of the other departments which all form part of this Acute Hospital.

The entrance to the building is an impressive architectural atrium which is also home to the Hospital shop and catering facilities. All of the Mechanical & Electrical services are of the highest possible standard. Nurse and crash call systems identify and led the emergency response team to the patient. One lift is linked back to the crash call system in order to give priority to the emergency response team. All 17 of the lifts in the building are stretcher lifts. A touch screen public way finding system is provided in all public common areas. There are nine plant rooms located in the roof space where all water, pumps sets, chillers, medical Gases and AHU’s are located. The AHU system supplying the building has one of the highest HEPA standard available. All hospital departments are all backed up by a pneumatic air tube system and robotic pharmacy. Separate to the building was the Key workers accommodation. This building provided accommodation for 80 hospital staff at any one time. It also incorporated a crèche and kitchen facilities. The management of such a project was a monumental task. There was an overall Project Director on the project and then Various Contracts Managers were then responsible to successfully deliver departments. Each con-tracts manager had their own site team under them to coordinate the subcontractors on a day to day basis. The decision to split the project into it various departments was a key to the success of the project. This meant that departments could be handed over to the Trust instead of zones. The Trust were then able to mobilise staff and begin training the staff on the new equipment and services controls. The Project Office on site also housed the Design Team, Contractors design coordination team, procurement and commercial teams along with the Clients representatives. There was an independent tester on site full