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Secretary of State opens Leighton Hospital ED extension


Health Secretary, Sajid Javid, has officially opened the latest project to be completed by MMC building specialist, MTX Contracts, at Leighton Hospital in Crewe. MTX said: “The two-storey, 4,200 m2


development


provides the Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust with an A&E Department extension that offers a larger, better, and safer environment for patients and staff, while helping to combat the extended waiting lists the NHS is currently facing.” The ground floor predominantly houses treatment rooms – including rapid assessment bays, isolation and ‘resus’ bays, and X-ray facilities, plus dedicated paediatric unit and mental health assessment rooms, as well as a bereavement suite, and the first floor, offices and staff areas. Steven Hartley, the MTX Project


director, said: “The new department’s completion has seen ambulatory care services re-locate into the new facility, with its greater capacity, creating an urgent care village which not only reduces patient assessment times, but also supports more cohesive working


MMC specialist’s private equity funding package


and overall improved patient experience. We’re incredibly proud that the Secretary of State was able to visit to open the newly completed building.” James Sumner, the Trust’s CEO, added:


“The purpose-built A&E ensures a bigger, better, and safer environment for both patients and staff. A&E attendance has increased across the country in recent years, so this provides an excellent opportunity to meet the needs of our growing population of 300,000.” Dr David Matthews, the Trust’s clinical


director of Emergency Care, concluded: “This facility is really exciting for the Trust – it has been carefully designed to allow for the clear separation of children and adults in a modern, welcoming environment that will greatly improve the patient experience.”


Addressing the Net Zero skills challenge in engineering services


Engineering services alliance, Actuate UK, is working with Energy Systems Catapult (ESC) ‘to boost the creation of a skilled workforce that will play a central role in reducing emissions from the built environment and delivering on the government carbon targets’. ESC is ‘an independent, not-for-


profit, centre of excellence for energy systems innovation and transformation for Net Zero’. Actuate UK says the built environment is responsible for over 40 per cent of all carbon emissions, adding that ‘skills shortages in key engineering professions can threaten to derail the UK’s plans for decarbonising buildings and preparing the UK for a Net Zero economy’. It added: “Moreover, the Net Zero challenge will require the sector to look to people with IT/digital, creative, energy systems, and Artificial Intelligence skills, as well as more ‘traditional’ engineering.” These are the issues to be tackled by this new strategic research project,


funded by the Engineering Services Training Trust, with the outcomes to be shared with partner industry organisations in the umbrella body, Actuate UK. ESC Capabilities Director, Richard Halsey, said: “Net Zero buildings need to work for the people who use them; that won’t happen unless the workforce knows how to plan, design, and deliver, to meet those needs, and can do so to the pace and scale needed to meet the challenge of climate change.” Helen Yeulet, director of Training and Skills of Building Engineering Services Association, who leads the Actuate UK Skills Group, will work with ESC and industry stakeholders on the project. She said: “The Net Zero agenda is already presenting a range of new challenges to our members and those of our partners in Actuate UK. Employers will need to recruit from a much wider demographic than currently – to meet our responsibilities and take advantage of the huge business opportunities.”


Darwin Group, the Shropshire-based provider of Modern Methods of Construction buildings for healthcare and education, has secured ‘significant funding’ from Kartesia, a European specialist provider of capital solutions for mid-sized companies. The offsite modular construction specialist has recently been successfully re-appointed to the NHS Shared Business Services Modular Building Framework, and secured a place on the Department of Education Schools Construction Framework. Over the past 18 months, Darwin has delivered over 700 acute and critical care beds for the NHS as a turnkey main contractor – including ‘the record- breaking’ design and construction of a 10,000 m2


, three-storey building


for University Hospital Wales, completed in just five months from initial client instruction.


Kartesia’s funds will support its management team in delivering its ‘ambitious organic growth plans’ – including significant further investment in its manufacturing facilities, expected to deliver a significant number of local jobs. CEO, Richard Pierce, said: “Our team has put in a huge amount of effort to build this business and lay the platform for future growth. It was thus critical to find a partner like Kartesia, which shares our ambition, enthusiasm, and values, and the same level of excitement in our vision for the future. Its funding will allow us to invest heavily in the business.”


The photo below shows the three-storey building designed and constructed by Darwin Group for the University Hospital Wales Lakeside Wing – a step-down facility for patients undergoing essential rehabilitation after a period of acute illness.


April 2022 Health Estate Journal 15


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