COLLABORATION AND TEAMWORK
The role of collaboration in hospital upgrades
Collaborative approaches are increasingly being adopted on capital hospital projects. Here, Rekha Thawrani, Global director at NEC Contracts, explains how collaborative contracting helped to overcome specific challenges and contributed to the successful delivery of the upgrade to the emergency department at Stepping Hill Hospital, in Stockport.
Beginning in 2022, the £34 m upgrade at Stepping Hill Hospital in Stockport, Greater Manchester, significantly expanded and improved the emergency care facilities at the hospital. Completed in six stages, the project involved extending the old emergency department with a new three-storey steel-framed building over the existing ambulance drop-off area, plus a new two-storey wing to the side.
Over 300 m2 of new assessment, treatment and
consultation areas have been provided, including for a children’s emergency department, mental health services, and same day emergency care. The ambulance drop off zone was also remodelled. Stockport NHS Foundation Trust chose to embrace a collaborative approach on the scheme and utilised NEC contracts to facilitate this. Specifically, it procured the scheme, awarded to contractor Tilbury Douglas, using an NEC3 Engineering and Construction Contract (ECC) Option C (target contract with activity schedule).
The new three-storey extension at Stepping Hill Hospital, delivered as part of the £34 m emergency and urgent care upgrade.
Co-operation and trust Collaborative contracting is designed to foster a genuine spirit of mutual trust and co-operation among those involved on a project. NEC contracts are also written in clear, straightforward language to make the contract easy to understand and administer, eliminating ambiguity and promoting good project management.
This proved to be valuable on the Stepping Hill Hospital upgrade as it faced many challenges during construction including working on a confined site in a live hospital environment, dealing with hidden underground obstructions and the need to avoid disruption of nesting birds.
Speaking about the benefits of collaboration on the
project, Michelle Waddicor, head of Capital Projects at the Trust says: “This was particularly useful when navigating the complex programme and phasing requirements of the scheme to ensure clinical services were maintained throughout construction with the least amount of disruption to patient care.” One of the key features of the NEC contracts is the early warning and risk management mechanisms. Under the early warning provisions, an early warning notice must be issued as soon as one of the parties becomes aware of anything that could affect the cost, delay completion, delay the meeting of a key date, or impact the performance of the works in use.
Regular engagement The focus on collaboration, and particularly the early warning mechanisms, ensured potential issues on the project were identified in good time and managed proactively. Michelle explains how this worked in practice: “Such discussions were facilitated though regular engagement, including fortnightly issues log meetings,
The focus on collaboration, and particularly the early warning mechanisms, ensured potential issues on the project were identified in good time and managed proactively
58 Health Estate Journal November 2025
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