Fast-track project helps Trust meet DH target

Fast-track modular building specialist and turnkey construction company, MTX, has recently completed its fastest modular new-build project yet, constructing a new modular orthopaedic surgery and rheumatology outpatient unit at Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust’s Derriford Hospital site in Plymouth in just 12 weeks from receipt of order to handover. As HEJ editor, Jonathan Baillie, reports, the unit’s completion in such a rapid timeframe – which required 24-7 working during the four-week fit-out – enabled the Trust to meet a Department of Health mandate for ‘front door Primary Care Streaming’ of patients to be in place by last October – by freeing up space for the triage process in an area next to the Emergency Department that was formerly used for outpatient rheumatology and orthopaedics appointments. 

Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust is the largest acute hospital Trust in the South West Peninsula of England, providing comprehensive secondary and tertiary healthcare. Its geography gives it a secondary care catchment population of 450,000, with a wider peninsula population of almost 2,000,000 who can access its specialist services. The Trust’s main acute healthcare facility, Derriford Hospital in Plymouth, has over 900 beds, and works with a network of other hospitals to offer specialist services including kidney transplant, pancreatic cancer surgery, neurosurgery, cardiothoracic surgery, bone marrow transplant, upper gastrointestinal and hepatobiliary surgery, neonatal intensive care and high risk obstetrics, plastic surgery, liver transplant evaluation, and stereotactic radiosurgery. As a regional specialist teaching hospital, Derriford provides comprehensive training for a wide range of healthcare professionals, working with both the Plymouth University Peninsula Schools of Medicine and Dentistry, and the University of Exeter Medical School. The hospital is also a Regional Trauma Centre, with its own helipad, while over 48,000 people pass through its main entrance every week. Derriford Hospital also has a longstanding and close relationship with the Ministry of Defence; a tri-service staff of 150 military doctors, nurses, and allied health professionals, is fully integrated within the hospital workplace. 

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