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healthcare build & design special report
The ground floor will contain a patients’ waiting area, consultation rooms, diagnostic CT and PET CT scanner zones and anaesthetic recovery rooms. The first floor is to contain the chemotherapy treatment facilities and office accommodation.
“The biggest challenge at the outset was working out with the client the best route to go down in terms of the proton beam and linear accelerator vault construction. “There are several ways of doing it, including using precast
high-density blocks or solid, in situ-poured concrete. The option we have decided to go with is an outer and inner precast concrete panel with a compressed aggregate infill. This forms overall radiation shielding that is up to three metres thick. We decided to go down this route because it is quick, not as weather dependent as in situ concrete and it allows you to lay cable ducts for services as the infill is being built up.” These special measures are necessary to absorb the radiation
that is generated during radiotherapy treatment. Another element of design to tackle this hazard is the layout of the entrance to the vault. Mike explains: “It’s a bit like a maze with an indirect shielded path you have to walk to get inside so that radiation can never escape directly. With a traditional square room with a door you would have to rely upon very heavy lead doors for shielding.” While patients are of course exposed to radiation on
the treatment gantry, further protection measures include the fact that medical staff who are operating the radiotherapy equipment do so from another room that is 10m away. Atkins is working with German company Pravida Bau,
which specialises in the manufacture of the vault system that will be installed at the Celtic Springs centre. The aggregate infill method they use is known as Forster Sandwich construction®. Pravida Bau has in turn been working with medical supplier IBA, which has developed the proton beam equipment. Atkins’ primary job, says Mike, is to integrate the new
technology into the architecture as a whole but, he adds, the company is well positioned to do so with experience over the past decade of working on a series of standard radiotherapy suites across the UK.
BUILDING PROJECTS
www.architectsdatafile.co.uk He continues: “Proton beam technology has been
around in other parts of Europe for decades so the technology is not new in a broader sense and has been widely tested. It is new to us here in the UK so it’s a learning curve but the principles of shielding and vault design are the same as standard radiotherapy.” It is worth noting at this point that under existing
regulations for radiotherapy equipment a radiation protection advisor has to be appointed for the project to give guidance on required levels of protection, and the government body National Resources Wales is also monitoring the project. Work on the existing two-storey building is a different kind
of architectural challenge. Mike says: “We’re trying to create an open and friendly atmosphere that is not intimidating for patients and visitors.” The ground floor will contain a patients’ waiting area,
consultation rooms, diagnostic CT and PET CT scanner zones and anaesthetic recovery rooms. The first floor contains the chemotherapy treatment facilities and office accommodation. Mike continues: “People may just pop in for an hour to have
a scan or they may be coming for chemotherapy in a different part of the building – whatever it is, what we’re trying to do is both create clear pathways through the building and a relaxing environment so the visit is as comfortable as possible.” For much of the ground floor, the spaces there will be taken
back to base structure before refurbishment creates “more of a spa or hotel feel, rather than that of a hospital”, according to Mike. Nevertheless, there are special requirements: for instance,
the CT and PET CT scanner areas require lead-lined walls. Mike says: “The existing structure wasn’t set up to take the weight of lead lining so we’re cutting out sections of existing floor slab and reinforcing these so that we can build dense blockwork walls. These blockwork walls can then carry Continued overleaf...
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