Project Overview

Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (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.

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 was 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 seven weeks off the programme and deliver these beds in early June 2020, ready for commissioning by the Trust.

DAY PM 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.