ESTATE REDEVELOPMENT


Bear in mind that this was a 1980s-designed hospital, a little unloved in terms of its lifecycle, so the new wing would stress much of the infrastructure. In fact, it wouldn’t have supported the new-build, so we created a masterplan, which identified the site as ripe for development. Consequently, we had to bring the HV electricity network onto site, working with SSEN (Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks) to divert it. The site has moved from an LV-powered system to an HV-powered one.” Mark Maffey explained that the Trust’s combined Estates team of Capital Projects and Operational Maintenance planned and managed the electrical reconfiguration ‘in house’, using 17 separate work packages. He explained: “While the main contractor managed a number of its domestic sub-contractors, we brought it all together. Brymor dug a 200-metre trench through the live site, into which SSEN laid its 10,000 volt cables. The project was responsible for laying the base for the ring main unit to a stringent specification, before SSEN landed its RMU.”


Not a straightforward step Chris James added: “We also installed a new HV transformer in a new GRP enclosure. So, we dropped 10,000 volts of HV supply into the transformer, but that had to be timed with switching off the low voltage supply, because SSEN couldn’t allow us to have two supplies live simultaneously. It sounds simple just to turn one supply off, and the other on, but it’s certainly not. With meticulous planning and commissioning, the switching on of services to the new West Wing went seamlessly.” The Estates team’s contingency planning included bringing in a standby generator, with a second as back-up. The new rehabilitation building is strikingly modern-


looking, with extensive glazing, and is clad externally with Kingspan QuadCore Karrier metal ‘sandwich’ panels. The roofing combines Kemplas insulation with a Kemper roof covering. Mark Maffey explained that the building has achieved a BREEAM ‘Excellent’— thanks to features including a high level of insulation and airtightness, extensive access to daylight, and metered use of water and other utilities.


He said: “Interestingly, such have been the advances in


ever-higher-performing materials that the glazing performs as well as the walls in the old building. Much of the super-neutral glass is triple-glazed, and argon filled, with a highly specialised reflective coating. Chris and I had used this system previously, and were genuinely surprised at its performance, including its excellent temperature stabilisation and low solar gain.” The new West Wing is a fully ventilated building, with


heat recovery, supplemented by radiant panels on both floors. The team extensively debated potential H&V solutions, but was keen to utilise technology that would not impede future re-planning of the floorplate. Mark Maffey elaborated: “We wanted to construct a building that would stand for 50 years, but to minimise challenge to any modification for future requirements. This drove us away from an underfloor heating system – thus allowing the floor plate (with its non-load-bearing walls) to be re-designed and replanned as many times as required in future years – towards ceiling-mounted radiant panels, currently fed from the gas-fired boilers within the campus’s existing energy centre, but sized to be able to run at low temperature. The combination of this and the new building’s airtightness and high insulation values means it is ripe for a switch to air source heat pumps when the time arises.” Chris James and his team are looking at further decarbonisation measures, having submitted a number of bids for PSDS funding, principally to enhance heating. The new West Wing incorporates roof-mounted solar PV


panels, and, as part of the ‘consequential improvements’ required on submitting a Building Regulations application for such an extension, the Trust also installed PV panels worth around £500,000 on the existing hospital’s western side, and replaced windows. I asked Maggie Stoppard about some of the new building’s most notable features from a nursing standpoint. She said: “One is our new Ascom nurse call system – selected because it offered us a different nurse call intelligence. It offers regular nurse call features – such as ‘push the buzzer’, and crash call, as well as Mobility, which – once we have configured a new server – will allow my team to each carry a mobile device which will ring and vibrate when a patient makes a nurse call or a crash call sounds. That will bring many efficiencies, including the ability to harvest data – for example on how long nurses are taking to answer their buzzers.” Currently, there are two Ascom display panels per


touchdown base. Maggie Stoppard said: “Once you switch to Mobility, there’s the option to run the ward silently for patient call, with the lights still illuminating, but without the constant ‘beeping’, since the nurses’ call devices would instead vibrate in their pocket. I think it would be good, especially at night, to be able to just walk round with the vibrating devices, creating a considerably quieter ward.” The new wards also have Guldmann ceiling track hoists in every bedroom and bay.


Impressions of the new environment Maggie Stoppard added: “We’re all very excited. It’s an amazing facility. We have 160 staff for our inpatient wards, and lost none as a result of the move. The new building is so much more spacious, providing considerably more flexibility in how we undertake our rehabilitation. Having the therapy teams on the ward means we get more scheduled Occupational Therapy and Physiotherapy sessions daily, and provides more opportunity for group therapy.” She added: “I’m a great advocate of rehabilitation being a 24-hour process; it’s not just your morning physio session. Every time a nurse walks the patient to the toilet, that’s more physio – and they use exactly the same techniques the therapists do. This is what sets us apart from the acute wards. There’s plenty of light and space in what is a beautiful building, and in the four-bed wards we’ve included a table and chairs to allow patients to share their meals together and promote social interaction. “Most of our patients come from an acute admission,”


she added. “We have an in-reach coordinator at Southampton General Hospital. Patients get referred to


February 2025 Health Estate Journal 45


One of the light and airy glazed corridors.


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