ESTATE REDEVELOPMENT
recognise things from their own world. Once you start looking, you want to keep moving and see more.” To ‘curate’ the images, the Trust’s
Artwork co-ordinator, Abi Dowell, worked closely with architectural photographer, Joe Low, who was specially commissioned to take a large number of photographs of landmark features, recognisable buildings, and natural scenes from Southampton and the surrounding region.
Individual bedrooms incorporate
Facilities in the new building include a central courtyard (pictured), and a terrace for accessible outside space.
him; he does an initial assessment, and they then go on a list. Average referral to admission time is about 2-3 days, and average stay length around 28 days. Traditionally, Level 3 rehabilitation inpatients have often been elderly patients who have had a fall, broken a hip, and come in for some rehabilitation because they’re not quite ready to go home. This still applies, but we’ve done considerable work recently on different pathways and admission routes. Currently, for example, we have a 20-year-old lady with us who damaged her spine in a trampoline accident. She’ll go to a spinal unit for her outpatient activity, but the wait is long – so we’re doing some excellent work with her here. Yesterday I watched her walk down the corridor, and she’s improving every day. It’s why I do the job.” Maggie Stoppard said another popular feature was the outside space. She said: “We didn’t have any courtyard or terrace at the Royal South Hants. Knowing they can get outside really encourages patients to regain their mobility.” Mark Maffey said access to external views – for
example of trees and nature, was a key design component, with every bedroom having an external view. He said: “Details such as low sill heights are key. In the single rooms, the beds are positioned with the bedhead abutting the wall incorporating the inboard en suite bathroom, and opposite the feature window. This gives the inpatient a direct view of the outside world, but also, with the bed very close to the bathroom, reduces fall risk.” Maggie Stoppard is particularly pleased with the incorporation of variety of spaces that patients can use when they want a break from their bed – whether the terrace, the day room, the gym, or the outside courtyard. The architects calculated the angle of the sun at different times of day to ensure that courtyard space is sun-filled whenever possible. Maggie Stoppard said: “The range of spaces is what really sets the new building apart from the service’s former location. As a patient at Lower Brambles, you’d get out of your bed and just sit in a chair. There was a corridor to walk up and down, but it still felt very much like a working hospital corridor.”
On-ward catering The new Keats and Conan Doyle wards are served via a cook / chill catering service. Mark Maffey explained: “Our catering team moves the refrigerated or frozen food to one of the regen kitchens on both wards, and the food is then prepared on the ward. The ‘time of flight’ for it being delivered to the patient is thus reduced. This is key – as we know that vitamins in food degrade the longer it stays on the plate.” Moving to another of the new building’s key features,
the Project manager emphasised the impact of its extensive artwork. He said: “We developed a specific concept for this – around photographs of Southampton and the surrounding areas. We have generated a ‘picture postcard concept’, with over 200 images per floor – the aim being that people go and look at the pictures and
46 Health Estate Journal February 2025
their own large-scale photographs of nature – such as detailed close-ups of flowers or trees – to add some interest, and lift the spirit. Colour has been carefully considered throughout the wards to aid patients’ movement around the space, with the architrave and doors to each patient room selected for easy identification, and high contrast with the surrounding area. To counterbalance this, rooms for staff use, such as toilets and storage rooms, are coloured the same across the wall, door, and architrave, so they don’t draw the eye. This is particularly relevant for patients with conditions such as dementia. Maggie Stoppard added: “It’s the much-improved
environment here that is enabling us to deliver better rehabilitation. Nationally, the past 5-6 years have seen a big push for improvements in rehabilitation care, and we definitely see ourselves at the forefront of this. Equally, our development of additional admission pathways – linking with specialist services like those for spinal patients – opens up more opportunities for patients to come in that weren’t necessarily here five years ago.”
An ‘exemplary brief’ Mark Maffey said a major contributor to the project’s success had been ‘the exemplary briefing’ from the clinical team. Chris James explained: “One of the things in terms of the briefing and the design thinking – going back to COVID – was that ‘Yes, it’s a rehabilitation facility’, but once you get immersed in the pandemic crisis, you face having to stand up surge wards and vaccination clinics. We thus did some lateral thinking on the project so that if another pandemic occurs, and we need to repurpose, we can.” He elaborated: “As much as it’s two wards, it can transform to four. We have also invested in piped medical gases, with piped oxygen to every bedhead, deploying the learning from COVID, and sizing the system accordingly. Although not required in a Level 3 rehabilitation unit, we felt it a sensible move. We’ve built in some flexibility to cater for what the future might bring.” Maggie Stoppard said: “People coming here have seen and recognised what sets us apart. For instance, a GP currently on rotation remarked that while there is always a process of user engagement and testing on healthcare construction projects, he had never before seen a facility that took the clinical needs on board so fully, right through to completion. He felt the new building had indeed been ‘properly clinically designed’. It wasn’t ‘just a hospital building’. “While we’ve worked a lot with the clinical teams,” Maggie Stoppard added, “we’ve also involved service- users. The people who will be using our building have been involved with the artwork, and indeed with naming the wards. Great collaboration and team-working has characterised the process to get this fantastic facility built. Whatever complexity, background, or need, someone has when they come in for rehabilitation, we can now deliver it here – in a really high-quality, 21st century setting.”
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