Aintree hospital’s 37€m Urgent Care & Trauma Centre poses logistical challenge for Bam
7 October, 2015 | By Will Mann
The contractor is delivering a complex jigsaw of a project split into several stages and surrounded by a live hospital environment.
Project: Aintree University Hospital Urgent Care & Trauma Centre
Client: Aintree University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Main contractor: Bam Construction
Architect: Taylor Young
Start date: February 2012
Completion date: December 2016
Project value: 37€m (18€m when Bam appointed)
“A slide puzzle” is how Bam’s project lead Rob Bailey describes Aintree University Hospital’s 37€m Urgent Care & Trauma Centre (UCAT) project.
“We know what the end result needs to be, but getting there is another matter,” he explains.
“We have had to move departments around, which has created more live interfaces with the operational hospital, and more work sites which can only be accessed through public thoroughfares.
“This has increased the amount of end-user engagement required because so many different departments were becoming affected – there have, literally, been hundreds of meetings.”
The heightened complexity of the project is due to significant changes in Bam’s brief since the firm’s initial appointment by Aintree University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in 2011.
“It became apparent that many departments would be displaced by construction of the UCAT building because of its size and the patient journeys required, so the whole job changed”
Rob Bailey, Bam Construction
At the time, the trust was aware the scheme’s scope would probably change, and chose to follow a procurement model along P21+ lines (see box) to give them flexibility to expand the contractor’s remit if necessary.
That year, Aintree was given responsibility for major trauma care for the whole of Merseyside and Cheshire, meaning the services provided by the hospital would expand considerably.
“It became apparent that many departments would be displaced by construction of the UCAT building because of its size and the patient journeys required, so the whole job changed,” Mr Bailey explains. “The footprint of the building needed more space, so other departments have had to move.”
Bam’s contract has turned into “an estate rationalisation”, as Aintree’s head of estates and facilities Paul Fitzpatrick, puts it.
Enablement marathon
An 18-month enabling works phase got under way in February 2012, and has involved upgrades, reconfigurations and refurbishments throughout the entire hospital, to allow the UCAT project to proceed.
This phase, which totalled 9€m in value, involved 13 separate packages of work.
These included alterations to one of the main operating theatres (2€m), construction of a new outpatients department (2€m), and relocation of the fractures clinic from its position alongside emergency services into the hospital’s tower block (677 180€).