MODERN METHODS OF CONSTRUCTION
Lyn Bennett, Matron of the Trust’s Adult Intensive Care service, said: “MTX has led the construction superbly, and its team and sub-contractors have been extremely responsive.”
sundries, with each bed re-stocked every 24 hours with essential medical items.
Clinical adjacencies Clinical adjacencies were key in the building’s planning and design. Immediately to its left is the hospital’s recently refurbished Trauma Building, which MTX has re-clad in a Rockwool- based Terracotta rainscreen panel, to match the exterior of both the new AICU and the Wolfson building. MTX has also created a ‘re-provisioned’ ground floor link corridor to provide covered, level access between AICU and Trauma with the theatres, ED, and imaging / diagnostic facilities – providing a fast, efficient through-route for patients who, for example, have undergone major surgery, and require subsequent critical care.
Left to right, the Capital Projects team: OUH director, Estates, Facilities, and Capital Development, Charmaine Hope; assistant Project manager, Rupert Mills of CPC, and Craig Merrifield, OUH Deputy director of Capital Development.
Extensive nursing experience Prior to the new building’s completion, I was given an interesting tour, late last year, by Lyn Bennett, who has worked in the AICU since 2000, and been Matron since 2015. With 34 years’ intensive and critical care experience, she has nursed in countries including the UK, Australia, and Saudi Arabia. She explained: “I remain Matron of
the Trust’s Adult Intensive Care service, including at Oxford’s John Radcliffe and Churchill Hospitals, and Horton General Hospital in Banbury, but for the past year was seconded to this project by the Chief Nursing Officer, Sam Foster. Even before planning permission was granted, however, Dr David Garry (the Clinical lead for Intensive Care Medicine & Anaesthetics) and I had worked on
the initial business case with the Estates Capital Projects team, led by Deputy director of Capital Development, Craig Merrifield, and the director of Estates, Facilities, and Capital Development, Charmaine Hope. With extensive intensive care nursing experience, the Trust felt my input, and feedback from my team, would be valuable in, for example, achieving the optimal layout. When I first got involved, I knew very little about construction, but I have learnt a lot from MTX – who have done a fantastic job, and from the Project Team, about some of the challenges on a fast-track construction project. The collaboration has been exceptional.”
Background to the scheme I asked Lyn Bennett about the rationale for the new Critical Care building. She explained: “We have had plans for a larger, more flexible, above-ground Critical Care facility for some years. However, securing the funding had always proven difficult, so we were optimistic when, in September 2020, the DHSC announced an extra £5.4 bn to support the NHS in England through the COVID-19 pandemic. We were delighted when our bid saw us receive £24 m towards this project. Rising COVID case numbers within our catchment area meant that, at the pandemic’s height, we had to transfer some patients out of the existing JR AICU into both the Cardio Thoracic Coronary Care Unit in the main building, and our Neuro ICU in the West Wing, to allow us to focus on the most severe COVID cases. This had a knock-on effect on the cardiac and neuro procedures.”
The main patient area within a ward. The spaces are large, there is abundant natural light, and each bed area has an excellent line of sight for the clinical staff.
44 Health Estate Journal May 2022
Contingency measure Lyn Bennett explained that, as a contingency measure, to increase the air change rates to 16 / hour to cater
James Frazer, Area 1 Photography
Courtesy of the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Courtesy of the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
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