HOSPITAL CONSTRUCTION
Fast-track construction for new £350 m Gwent facility
It has been over 15 years in the making, but last spring, Gwent’s new £350 million Grange University Hospital near Cwmbran came out of the ground, delivered by a method of construction that its constructor, Laing O’Rourke, says will drive innovation, value, quality, and consistency, and meet the ambitions of the Aneurin Bevan University Health Board’s Clinical Futures Strategy. Laing O’Rourke’s project director, Mike Lewis, explains ‘why non-traditional methods are the most effective way to deliver healthcare of this scale’.
In 2008, engineering enterprise, Laing O’Rourke, was invited to join the ‘Designed for Life Framework’ for the Aneurin Bevan University Health Board (ABUHB) for the construction of Wales’ most important and progressive hospital to date. Discussions between the health board and Welsh Government had been underway since 2003, when the project was first proposed for the site of the former Llanfrechfa Grange Hospital near Cwmbran, and had been earmarked for Welsh Government investment to cater for Gwent’s sickest patients in a new Grange University Hospital.
Our proposal was part of the Aneurin Bevan University Health Board Clinical Futures Strategy, which aimed to: n Deliver most care close to home. n Create a network of local hospitals providing routine diagnostic and treatment services.
n Centralise specialist and critical care services in a purpose-built Specialist and Critical Care Centre.
“We are a big Health Board,” explains Liz King, senior project clinician at ABUHB. “When we started Clinical Futures, we had three district general hospitals that were providing the same services for 600,000 people. We could see workforce issues down the line; the Medical Royal Colleges were setting higher standards, they made recommendations such as that consultants should be on labour wards, and that all patients were seen at the front door by a senior doctor. In response, we decided to centralise specialist and critical care services and use the existing hospitals as a network of sub-acute, outpatient, and elective facilities.”
Reform and improvement programme The Health Board developed its strategy in response to the Welsh Government’s ‘Designed for Life Framework’, building on the major programme of reform and improvement in 2001 called ‘Improving Health in Wales’. The Designed for Life Framework focused on the buildings that
January 2019 Health Estate Journal 49
would support the Welsh Government’s ambitions to improve health, and reform hospitals, communities, and social services. As important as the high quality care services the Framework was intended to deliver was the need for high quality building design that was flexible, safe, and effective, and provided staff and patients with what they wanted from their healthcare system. The need was for buildings that were fit for purpose, and which supported an improved quality of life for the people of Wales.
In 2008, ABUHB appointed its key team to develop the Grange University Hospital (previously known as the Specialist and Critical Care Centre (SCCC)). Laing O’Rourke was selected as preferred contractor to build The Grange University Hospital, with Gleeds appointed as project
and cost managers. What ensued was nine years of meticulous detailing of the design stages, funding, and value cost exercises, driven by the partnership of the Welsh Government, the Department of Health, ABUHB, Gleeds, Laing O’Rourke, and our supply chain. The process stopped and started several times over several years, further complicated by the start of the 2008 recession, but was finally given the green light by Vaughan Gething, then Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Services, in October 2016. We were re- engaged in January 2017, and signed the construction contract in October that year.
Mostly single bed
The contract we signed was for a 471-bed – of which the majority are single bed – 55,000 m2
hospital that will serve a
Computer-generated images of the new Grange University Hospital: the main entrance (above), a bedroom (below left), and the 24-hour emergency department and assessment unit (below right).
©BDP
©BDP
©BDP
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