Critical Care Unit Expansion, Preston Royal Hospital
Relevant Experience
4-Phase Expansion / Extension / Remodel to a live Critical Care Unit – Value £14m
Working with multiple stakeholders at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust to meet End User requirements.
Procure22 Framework.
Client’s requirements
LTH were significantly redeveloping and expanding their critical care bed capacity at the Royal Preston site to transform a dilapidated part of their existing estate into a state-of-the-art 34 bed Critical Care Unit. The project was delivered in four separate phases and involved a new extension and plant room to service the area.
We entered into an agreement with one of our competitors to deliver a joint-PM Service, which has allowed the client to have the benefit of senior staff from two organisations providing PM leadership on this project. LTH have had historic issues with staff retention and recruitment due to the existing poor estate; through careful project management, we led on an extensive stakeholder engagement exercise to understand the needs of the staff, to create a world-class facility on the Preston site. The first two phases were successfully occupied in late June 2020, with the remaining two phases completed in March 2021, and the feedback from the clinical team has been phenomenal.
The Covid-19 crisis presented numerous challenges to a project which was already almost a year into the build cycle. The construction site is in the centre of a busy acute hospital site, and immediately adjacent to the existing Critical Care Unit, housing patients suffering from Covid-19. The client also asked that the Phase 1 & 2 works be accelerated to bring the beds on-line quicker, and the contractor experienced difficulties in obtaining materials due to the Lockdown restrictions. By working with all stakeholders, we managed to agree on alternative specifications with all clinical teams so that materials could be sourced, and put in place a 24/7 working pattern with the contractor to take 7 weeks off the programme and deliver these beds in early June 2020, ready for commissioning by the Trust..
Our Contribution
Intensive workshops with the design team and clinical teams to deliver a phased design which met the requirements of the clinical need
Led the appointment of a PSCP and the delivery of an affordable GMP via the P22 procurement route within a tight timeframe to meet business case approval requirements
Agreed and implemented an accelerated programme during a pandemic in a live clinical environment
Regularly reporting progress to the Client team on programme, cost and quality.
Managing change requests throughout design and construction phase.
