Space reinvented:a refurbishment journey

At Healthcare Estates 2025, Tony Sinden, enterprise account manager – Northern Europe at Honeywell, interviewed Simon Boundy, head of healthcare, and architectural assistant Jakub Raspl, both of Stride Treglown Architects, winners of the 2025 Healthcare Estates Refurbishment Project Of The Year Award. They discussed the methodology behind – and challenges presented by – an extensive refurbishment project at Bigbury Orthopaedic Surgical Suite for University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust that involved the relocation of non-clinical services while minimising disruption to core services.

Tony Sinden: What was the vision behind the project and how did it evolve?

Simon Boundy: We've been working with University Hospitals Plymouth for about 20 years, so we understand their estate. We developed their strategic development plan, site development plan, effective development control plan. One of the projects which came out of that strategic plan was the relocation of non-clinical services, wherever possible, off the acute site and maximising the use of the acute site for core clinical services — theatres, intensive care, inpatients, etc. So this project — just to give an overview — it's right at the core of the existing hospital, which was built in the late 70s. It's relocating what were the main hospital kitchens to an off-site location — so that's lower cost for the trust — and transforming that space into an operating theatre suite. That's part of an ongoing programme where we're looking to move, long-term, pathology, kitchen, sterile services, off-site — all those functions which absolutely don't have to be on the acute site. It reduces congestion on the site, and frees up space for those core clinical services.