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Vanguard to provide alternative facilities quickly. The Health Board’s sites were assessed as to their suitability to house additional, temporary facilities. Quickly, a plan was developed to install four surgical theatres, two wards and an endoscopy complex at Royal Glamorgan Hospital. The chosen location was close to the main entrance of the hospital, but the fact that it was closely confined on three sides, by the main hospital buildings, presented some challenges. “We had to work out the most effective shape to get the four theatres in. It is an exceptionally snug space and we’ve had to work really flexibly with Vanguard and our partners in shared services, in relation to the building regulations, recognising it’s in a courtyard space.” While Vanguard went about installing the
replacement capacity, the Health Board staff did all they could to minimise disruption for patients, especially those requiring the most urgent attention. Gethin explains, “Our teams have been fantastically flexible. “We’ve got teams working in evenings and
at weekends using our existing estate, but that only reduces the demand by a small proportion. We’ve prioritised the urgent clinical cases to make sure that those patients on suspected cancer pathways have been the priority through endoscopy, so that we can continue to make sure that those patients at greatest risk are being managed as effectively as we can.” Vanguard first installed the standalone
Endoscopy Complex. Delivered by two HGVs, positioned, extended and seamlessly joined, this facility provides two treatment rooms, a five-bed ward and scope processing. Touring the facility, a couple of days before the first patient visited, Consultant
Modular and mobile facilities were integrated seamlessly
Gastroenterologist, Dr. Thomas Yapp spoke about how beneficial it would be to reunite the Princess of Wales team, which had been scattered around the Health Board’s sites. “Being back together will allow us to resume our service in full, providing a first-class endoscopy service in a first-class endoscopy environment.” Four relocatable or mobile theatres were
delivered for the surgical suite. These unique, versatile facilities are ideal when high-quality theatre capacity is required with minimum delay and have been used for almost every type of procedure, including orthopaedics, ophthalmics and open-heart surgery. Modular construction was used to add two wards, one six-bay and one eight-bay, plus support rooms including a reception and waiting area, multiple consulting rooms and offices, clean and dirty utility rooms for each ward, four staff changing rooms, storage rooms and a staff welfare room.
As expected, the close, collaborative working
relationship between the Health Board and Vanguard was vital to the quick, successful installation. Dr. Dom Hurford, Executive Medical Director, CTM, and Consultant Anaesthetist, Royal Glamorgan Hospital, commented, “It got to the stage where we weren’t quite sure who was a Vanguard employee and who was a CTM employee because everyone was working together. People were challenging each other the right way, coming up with suggestions that could have come from either side of the table, working as one team, rather than ‘us and them’. I think that made all the difference.” While Vanguard was completing the
groundwork, commissioning the relocatable theatres and simultaneously constructing the modular sections at their factory in Hull, Health Board staff were also busy, making the installation process as smooth as possible and ensuring everything was prepared to enable full patient services as early as possible. As Sarah Edwards, Directorate Manager - Anaesthetics, Critical Care, Theatres and Orthopaedics, CTM UHB, says, “The speed and the rapid response is nothing less than phenomenal. We were told in January that these four theatres were going to be landing on the Royal Glamorgan site and within 48 hours, we set up a task and finish group, which was multidisciplinary, involving a number of services and specialties, ranging from the capital team, right through to facilities, the therapies, radiology, health and safety, admission and discharge, and ward support.
The eight-bay modular ward
“It is exceptional for the infrastructure to be embedded, constructed, fully equipped, and have all the equipment moved from one site to another, which was a task in itself. This equipment is not easy to transport. To get our waiting list management and all our IT systems aligned to a new set of theatres and the lifting
October 2025 I
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