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Modular ward at Barnstaple Hospital operational in 21 weeks
Wernick Buildings has recently built, delivered, and installed, a new modular ward building at Barnstaple’s North Devon District Hospital in in just 20 weeks from receipt of order. A modular solution was chosen for its speed of deployment, because it complemented the space available, and because it would minimise disruption and build time on the site. The building’s completion is enabling the Trust to serve an additional 25 orthopaedic patients per week. Marsh Pullen, the Trust’s Capital Contracts manager, explained: “We required a new building to increase our elective bed capacity. We went out to the marketplace via the NHS Shared Business Services Modular Framework with a specification. Wernick offered a very competitive package. We raised an order with Wernick Buildings, and 20 weeks later we were delivered a fully compliant, completed building. One week thereafter we were treating patients in it. We asked Wernick to deliver a compliant ward, but what they provided was above and beyond that – because it also aligns with our standard specification for mechanical and electrical items. Our clinical users are thus immediately familiar with all the systems’ workings.”
The new ward ‘is in a bit of a tight corner’ of the hospital, needed to ‘marry in’ with the existing structure to allow patients to transit to and from the main building, and had to be built at a ‘live’ acute care hospital at constant full capacity. Marsh Pullen added: “Wernick’s team nevertheless worked with minimal disruption, working really well with the Design team on the clinical side. Everybody that has looked at the new ward so far loves it. The Wernick build team has proven extremely professional; they said they could deliver us a ward on time, on budget, and they have.”
Lottery grant will support Barts’ North Wing restoration
Work to restore the Grade I listed buildings at the heart of Britain’s oldest hospital will begin this summer, thanks to a multi-million pound Lottery grant. The National Lottery Heritage Fund
has awarded £4.9 m to Barts Heritage, the organisation established to ‘rescue and repair’ the North Wing at London’s St Bartholomew’s Hospital – home to the Great Hall and sweeping staircase painted by William Hogarth. Barts Health NHS Trust says the
staircase ‘will be returned to its former glory’, including strengthening its timber frame, and ‘conserving a magnificent 18th century chandelier’. In addition to the urgent repairs to
the staircase and Great Hall, the funding will allow Barts Heritage to re-open the North Wing to the public. The Trust said: “There will also be a chance for the next generation of professional conservators to hone their skills through placements, apprenticeships, and volunteering opportunities.” The Lottery award completes Barts Heritage’s initial £9 m fundraising appeal.
CEO of Barts Heritage Trust, Will Palin,
said: “The Hogarth Stair is a genuine hidden treasure, and just one element of our ambitious project combining the much-needed restoration of the one of the UK’s most important historic hospital buildings, with a pioneering heritage and health programme. We are thrilled to have secured this transformative grant, and look forward to welcoming the public – both during the restoration works, and after the project is complete.” St Bartholomew’s will celebrate its 900th anniversary on 25 March. The Trust says the Wing restoration is ‘one of a number of exciting projects to celebrate this unique milestone’.
‘Tailored support at home’ for the elderly and vulnerable
‘Tens of thousands’ of elderly and vulnerable people will receive ‘tailored support at home’ as part of a new NHS plan to improve waiting times for emergency care, the Department of Health and Social Care has announced. Community services – including Falls and Frailty teams – will be ‘scaled up’, with up to 50,000 people a month supported by clinicians at home in ‘virtual wards’, while urgent community response teams will also be expanded, to provide more patients with support at home within two hours, ‘in recognition of the pressures facing A&E’. These measures are part of a two-year plan, Delivery plan for recovering urgent and emergency care services, published by NHS England on 30 January. While Falls and Frailty teams made up of nurses already exist, the DHSC says this plan will ‘standardise and scale up’ these services, and – building on
12 Health Estate Journal March 2023
this winter’s learnings – ensure more services are in place in time for next winter, with remote monitoring technology used to reduce falls risks. The NHS has already
rolled out ‘virtual wards’ – treating patients in their own homes – and cites ‘growing evidence that these are a safe, efficient alternative to hospital
care, particularly for frail patients’. The DHSC explained: “Patients are reviewed daily by the clinical team, who may visit them at home, or use video technology to monitor and check how they are recovering.”
Health and Social Care Secretary,
Steve Barclay (pictured), said: “Up to 20% of hospital admissions are avoidable with the right care in place. By expanding the care provided in the community, the most vulnerable, frail, and elderly patients can be better supported to continue living independently or recover at home.”
Photo CC BY 3.0
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