Singleton Hospital radiotherapy centre, oncology department and wards

The project involved three phases:

1. Construction of a new two-storey radiotherapy centre (built as an extension) together with refurbishment of existing single storey oncology department.
2. Asbestos removal and refurbishment of wards 2 and 4, including replacement of the M&E services
3. Overcladding and window replacement on the south elevation of a seven-storey ‘live’ hospital building containing 12 wards, involving the upgrade of approximately 400 windows. Additionally, over cladding of existing panels and enclosing balconies with curtain walling and associated steelwork.

Challenges and solutions

As the building was located within a restricted site, we selected mast climbing work platforms for the overcladding, which provided:

• ease and speed of installation.
• maintenance of privacy and dignity– avoiding working from within the hospital itself.
• flexibility and movement – reducing the ground-level obstruction and improving traffic flow around the estate.
• use as a goods lift – minimising manual handling injury risk.

A phased decant of occupied wards took place to facilitate the works. To maintain segregation from occupied areas a demountable hoarding system was devised that:

• sealed against the building fabric – mitigating draughts and infection pathways.
• was easy to clean – maintaining high infection control standards.
• was easily manoeuvred – reducing the impact during installation.
• provided acoustic attenuation – significantly reducing works noise levels on the wards.

"A first class performance throughout from a company with which it was a pleasure to work.”

Tony Thomas, project manager, Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Local Health Board

Performance

The overcladding project was delivered ahead of programme. The use of mast climbers enabled us to reduce the programme by nine weeks. The refurbished cladding reduced thermal heat loss from the building, providing an energy saving to the whole ward block of circa £10,000 per annum.

Constant communication with hospital managers facilitated effective bed management of the 400 affected beds.

Client satisfaction scores were ‘excellent’ in all categories including our ability to deliver to programme, budget and quality.

All projects were under budget realising savings to the Trust, including a 12.9% saving on the ward refurbishment.