HEALTHCARE CONSTRUCTION


Paul Morris visiting site.


to support national thinking on the future of hospital design as part of the New Hospital Programme. We have sought patients’ views on designing the new ward, and have had considerable input from the Trust’s Estates and Capital Planning teams, the architects at Health Spaces, our New Hospital Team, and our clinicians. We also had feedback from our engagement during 2022 on our planned new hospital, with over 200 comments from staff, patients, and other stakeholders, and from our own New Hospital Programme team.


Tying in with the Trust masterplan “One of our main priorities was to ensure that whatever we built would accord with our current strategy, but also our masterplan. We also wanted to ensure we could retain the new decant facility as the new estate came together, that it would tie in with our plans for a new diagnostic centre and an elective surgical facility, and connect seamlessly to the current building. Simultaneously, we wanted to upgrade some of our infrastructure – including our power supplies and medical gases. We also knew that the national direction in England is towards 100% single rooms, which gives us real benefits on one hand, but challenges on the other.” Diane Goodwin, the Operations


director within the Trust’s New Hospital Programme team, said the preferred option for the new ward was for its to be ‘hybrid,’ but with a high percentage of single rooms. She elaborated: “To enable us to test out new ways of working, we’ve retained some four-bedded bays, which will help with our research in comparing the pros and cons of single rooms versus four-bedded bays. We have some four-


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NHS Chief Nursing Officer for England, Dame Ruth May, officially opens the concept ward on 27 May this year.


bedded bays in the existing hospital, but those in the new ward will be designed to new size standards, and are much enhanced. We have also built into the new ward the potential to upgrade it, and indeed the two four-bedded bays will be easily convertible to two single en-suite rooms. We’ve also taken staff wellbeing strongly into account, it having become very evident this was an area lacking in our existing hospital during the pandemic. There are places for staff to change and shower, and relaxation facilities so they can switch off during breaks.” She continued: “There will be no large


central nurses’ station; instead the nurses will be dispersed throughout the ward using touchdown bases. There will be ample support facilities and equipment storage – to enable staff to locate the items they need fast, a dedicated pharmacy, and sluice rooms at both ends. The two, slightly bigger, isolation rooms incorporate ante-rooms for infection control, and will receive 15 air changes / hour, meaning they can accommodate a low-level ICU critical care-type patient. The therapy garden will be accessible to both staff and patients, with a major focus on enabling people to get outside and have some fresh air. “There will be modern ventilation


throughout, with both positive and negative pressure available. We would like to have upgraded the ventilation in the existing hospital to this standard – which would have been particularly beneficial during the pandemic. While some improvements were made, it was challenging to achieve in the existing estate. “We’ve also looked at embedding digital


The therapy garden will be accessible to both staff and patients, with a major focus on enabling people to get outside and have some fresh air


Diane Goodwin, James Paget University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust 52 Health Estate Journal August 2023


solutions wherever possible. We wanted this to be a ‘silent’ ward, so, for example, we have fitted a new nurse call system where if the patient triggers the alarm, staff are alerted silently, and can then respond to the patient directly. We’ve also installed additional M&E infrastructure to enable us to incorporate further digital technology with minimal disruption in the future.”


‘Mood lighting’ Diane Goodwin went on to explain that the new concept ward will also incorporate patient-controllable ‘mood lighting’. She added: “We know we will be caring for both children and adults with neurodiverse conditions in it, and the ability to change the lighting’s colour and intensity can be very therapeutic.”


Built using Modern Methods of


Construction, the new ward has an anticipated 50-year lifespan. Diane Goodwin said of the single rooms’ layout: “We’ve put considerable effort into designing them, with the patient bed on the same side as the en-suite. This orientation ensures that patients have a pleasant view out of the window, there is visitor seating, and all rooms will have a sink”.


She continued: “The four-bedded bays will also be larger than our existing ones, with views to the garden, and will each be served by an en-suite bathroom and toilet. The corridors are much wider than hospital’s current ones, and will have staff touchdown bases equipped with a computer and desk. Nurses and clinicians will have visibility of two patients in single rooms ahead, and – if they turn around – two behind. We are hoping most patients will be able to walk to, or be assisted to, the garden when they wish to visit it. It will feature a covered area with an oxygen supply for those patients needing this. “All in all,” she concluded, “we are all


very excited about what should be a fantastic new ward environment, and were delighted to see the building completed on schedule – to a very high standard – and handed over to us in late May.”


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