Frimley Park Hospital in Surrey chose a Yorkon off-site building solution from the Portakabin Group for a new 34-bed emergency care ward to help address increased pressure, particularly during peak periods, by expanding capacity.
The two-storey ward building, which provides beds for critical and elderly care, was handed over after just four months on site. Off-site construction ensured that any disruption to the hospital was kept to a minimum and, Yorkon says, ‘reduced the programme time by around half compared with site-based construction methods’, to allow earlier occupation. The building was manufactured and partially fitted out offsite in York.
Greg Hinde, capital project manager at Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Speed was the principal driver for choosing a modular building. Site-based construction just would not have enabled us to have the building operational as quickly. The wards have been well received by staff and patients. We think the design of the workstations within the bed bay areas works particularly well and facilitates patient contact. The overall design and layout provides a fantastic environment for patients and staff.”
With pressure on health services continuing to rise, Portakabin Group reports increased demand for a range of healthcare buildings – including wards, theatres, and diagnostic facilities, which are ‘strategically planned by Trusts anticipating their needs for peak periods’. It added: “These buildings are complex, specialist, and highly serviced facilities required to expand capacity on typically extremely constrained hospital sites. The requirements are increasingly being met using off-site solutions – in up to half the time of site-based building methods.”
