MODERN METHODS OF CONSTRUCTION
for COVID patients in the old AICU, and provide a more comfortable environment, the Estates and Facilities team had to remove some windows, and set up extract ventilation units externally. She said: “This made a considerable difference, but at the peak of the first wave we were having to house two AICU patients in one bed space. We had outgrown the AICU, so when the Government announced it would fund regional tertiary AICU facilities, we bid – and the result is this fantastic building.”
One-to-one care As we entered, the AICU Matron explained that she and her team follow the Procedures and Principles of Intensive Care – which stipulate that AICU patients on a ventilator need to receive one-to-one nursing care 24 hours per day. She said: “All our ICU nurses are RN-qualified; some join straight from university, while others have worked on hospital wards for several years. It is a rewarding, but demanding, job. ICU nurses spend nearly all of their shift in a confined space, and frequently face ‘life or death’ decisions, requiring a certain strength of character.”
Large bed lift Having discussed the project background, we were now inside the new Critical Care Unit, which at the time of my visit late in 2021 was still a hive of construction activity. The first feature Lyn Bennett pointed out was a large bed lift, designed to take both a patient in a bed, and all the associated medical equipment. She said: “This lift will enable us to transport a patient from the ground floor to one of the other two ICU floors, or down from them to the ground floor if, for example, they need a diagnostic procedure in the main hospital. To get the size of the lift right, we marked out the floor in a vacant room within the main hospital, and undertook a time and motion study with an AICU bed and the associated equipment.”
Training’s importance recognised The Trust places considerable emphasis on continuing training of its ICU personnel,
The new Critical Care Unit building that MTX has recently completed at Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital is believed to be the UK’s tallest MMC healthcare facility built to date.
and, close to the ground floor entrance, is a seminar / training room with full A/V facilities. While the existing ICU team is about 150-strong, with the aforementioned staff-to-patient ratio, and the new unit incorporating three times the bed numbers, recruitment of an additional 66 nurses was under way when I visited. Lyn Bennett said: “The new unit will also be staffed by a range of clinicians, and, for example, other staff such as physiotherapists and pharmacists. Having a dedicated seminar and training room that all can use is a real plus.” Also on the right-hand side of the ground floor are dedicated offices for the Matron, the clinical lead, other clinicians, and administrative staff, plus a staff rest room with kitchenette. Lyn Bennett explained: “We’ve aimed to make the offices a good size, and where it’s not been possible to give them a window to the exterior, have installed internal windows into an adjacent room, which is itself daylit.
Importance of light “Given the especially intense nature of intensive care nursing, we’ve sought to maximise light ingress, and incorporate
spaces where staff can enjoy some downtime, such as the ground floor coffee room and kitchenette, with its sofas, comfortable chairs, and a TV. Having sought staff’s views on elements such as the colour schemes used throughout, we decided on different-coloured Sterisheen paint for each floor, which will both aid orientation, and is easy to clean, while at lower levels, the walls and bathroom IPS units incorporate Trovex cladding. The staff consultation made all feel ‘involved’.”
Storage space Moving into the ‘clinical’ part of the ground floor, Lyn Bennett showed me a specially designed ‘donning and doffing’ area, where staff can enter via a ‘clean area’ to put on the required protective clothing – and then, on completing their shift – exit via a ‘dirty’ area, having removed it. Lyn Bennett noted the separate air management for each floor, meaning patients with a particular infection can be treated on one floor, and those with another on a different one, as well as for each isolation room. Each floor also incorporates dedicated storage space for more ‘bulky’ items such as trolleys. Lyn
May 2022 Health Estate Journal 45
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