HEALTHCARE ESTATES 2016
A ‘real fizz and buzz about it’ “Coming to Alder Hey,” he told the audience, “was a very interesting experience; the place has got a real fizz and a buzz to it, with an informal structure to it. The Trust was very clear on what it wanted to achieve. By the time I arrived, the project was well underway, and the first thing I encountered was the Children and Young People’s Design Group, that had been encouraged to become involved by the Alder Hey development team. The children were really enthused, and very keen to see the features they wanted realised at the new hospital. What they were really interested in was ‘How does the outside world come in?’ Having been asked to complete an exercise on what they wanted, they sat down, talked about it, and drew things. “Ninety-five per cent of what they drew revolved around trees, plants, and the outside world. With the children’s active input there was a strong feeling that the hospital should be connected to nature. If you had asked staff, they would probably have drawn an office or a car park, but with the children’s active input there was a strong feeling that the hospital should be connected to nature.” The second significant influence David Powell encountered was the hospital’s IT director. He said: “I have worked with some good IT directors, but this guy was extremely imaginative and forward- thinking; he had in mind the idea of this building being able to recognise people
A model of the brain from 3D LifePrints.
the moment that they entered; ‘a kind of living hospital’. His vision was that the building should recognise, and respond to, the people using it.”
A ‘driving concept’
This, the speaker explained, was a ‘driving concept’ for him. At the time the project team had started the PFI competition, and one element that they were focusing on was how to embed technology that would enable data transfer from the hospital’s building management system to its clinical systems.
“The next key individual I met,” David Powell continued, “was a radiologist. He discussed how, when children who had undergone a CT or MRI scan left the imaging department, they left behind a lot of stickers on the floor. The radiologist told me the ‘reward’ stickers the children were given often simply fell off their jumpers, and had ‘no real credibility’. He was considering a more imaginative alternative, and mentioned that his own children often created characters on their PCs in a gaming environment. He said: ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if the character they created could follow them into the hospital?’ This was an extremely interesting idea, and we began to develop the concept of each young patient being allocated their own avatar who would accompany them in on admission, and follow them around the hospital.”
A number of 3D prints produced by 3D LifePrints for pre-operative planning.
38 Health Estate Journal April 2017
A wealth of experience The speaker explained that, with the considerable hospital construction activity seen over the past 15-16 years, he was aided, in turning many of the ideas into reality, by a highly experienced design team, which included senior representatives from main contractor,
Laing O’Rourke, and architects, BDP. He said: “All these people – with their considerable and very varied expertise – were now at Alder Hey. With the mix of input and ideas the new hospital became this rather funky hospital in the park, with the park wrapped up on the top of it, and all the nature and gardens brought in. The designers effectively designed the outside as if it was part of the inside, and the inside as if it was very natural.” This creative theme and direction had now, he explained, been further taken forward in plans to build a new research institute adjacent to the hospital.
Taking the innovation forward Having seen the new hospital successfully completed, David Powell and his project team colleagues next moved to consider how they could take forward the innovation evident in its design and construction. He said: “One of the first things we did was to build an Innovation Hub. We had about 1,000 square metres underneath the park that we could use for this new R&D facility. Its mission is to create new interesting ideas and concepts which will enhance the way that future healthcare is provided.” The idea within this hub is to ‘harness all the energy’ of the project team, and many other staff and colleagues, and ‘put it into a programme of building new things’. David Powell said: “It’s not specifically aimed at the next two years and the Carter Agenda, but is ultimately looking at the same goals of modernisation and improvement. The idea is to be able to create something new which addresses a particular medical or other issue via a novel, imaginative solution.” Alder Hey’s clinical lead for Innovation is a consultant surgeon, while other
© Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust.
© Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust.
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