CLINICAL BUILDINGS
Above and top right: The new Centre for Laboratory Medicine is – as you would expect – a highly serviced facility.
Right: The building’s new pneumatic tube system was engineered to connect to the hospital’s existing system, and is so efficient that samples sent from the other side of the campus arrive ‘within minutes’.
Emma Storey said: “Much of the building is ‘smart’. For example, especially in the automation areas, the lighting is on daylight sensors, so won’t activate if not required. Parameters including temperature, humidity, CO2
, and other lab
gases, are monitored and maintained at the right levels via an advanced Building Management System from Trend Controls, installed by Westminster Controls. This BEMS will quickly identify any excess gas levels or leakages.” Among the lab gases that will be used are anaerobic mixed gas, Nitrogen, CO2
, Helium, Argon, and
compressed air; wherever there is a gas, there are sensors.
The patient benefits Having discussed the key M&E aspects, I asked Emma Storey to reiterate some of the biggest benefits consolidating the region’s Pathology services on a single site would bring to patients. She said: “First and foremost, we should receive samples much faster, instead of them potentially reaching the wrong location and having to be transferred. In turn, we will be able to achieve faster resulting. Our new equipment will process samples faster, and we will then be able to put the results onto a single laboratory information management system – so they can be viewed by all the clinicians who need to see them straight away, rather than potentially being delayed, for instance in the post.” The Centre for Laboratory Medicine had
58 Health Estate Journal February 2024
an official opening on 26 September last year, where attendees included the Trust’s Chair, Dame Linda Pollard, its CEO, Phil Wood, West Yorkshire Mayor, Tracy Brabin, and Minister of State at the Department of Health and Social Care, Will Quince. “Involving staff in the building’s design and planning was one of our priorities from the outset,” Emma Storey explained. “Pathology laboratory staff have helped drive the design, participating in all the Design meetings, and have been involved in all the major design decisions. We have also liaised extensively with the Trust’s Estates team – a prime stakeholder, which has provided some invaluable advice and guidance.” Andy Munro added: “One of the Estates
team’s key roles has been to ensure that the M&E services within the new pathology facility don’t impact on the infrastructure of the existing hospital. The team is also fully aware of the equipment which will be going into the building, so they can maintain it efficiently following handover.” The Trust’s Estates team will be responsible for the general upkeep and maintenance of the new laboratory building, while Siemens Healthineers’ managed services contract will see it maintain and service specialist automated equipment.
‘24/7 operation’ for some parts of the building “Parts of the Centre for Laboratory Medicine, such as the ground floor
automation area, will operate ‘24/7’, and – in addition to its fully programmable access control system – the building will be well lit externally and monitored via CCTV,” Andy Munro explained. This is an Axis IP CCTV system that harnesses a Synectics front-end video management system platform which allows for a PSN 4 Enterprise Class storage device, along with Synergy camera licences for all cameras. ‘Fast-acting’ IG541 inert gas fire suppression systems are installed within the HV, LV, switchrooms, and ICT rooms, as a key fire safety measure. Emma Storey added, as our discussions closed: “The new pathology building will also play a significant part in training students at the University of Leeds keen to work in the field. Hopefully the fantastic working environment, and the level of automation, will make the Centre a place pathology professionals will really want to come and work in. The build quality is exemplary – a credit to BAM, its supply chain, and sub-contractors, while the excellent working relationships between all parties throughout have played a big part in the building being completed in rapid time to such a high standard. I am really looking forward to Pathology staff moving in, and to the difference the new working environment and technology will make to the speed, efficiency, and quality of Pathology services across the region. The biggest beneficiaries – quite rightly – should be the patients that we and the region’s other acute Trusts serve.”
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