COVER STORY: High-quality estates: a hybrid MMC approach

At Wycombe, MTX is set to create a landmark 15,000m² six-storey building that will allow Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust to move core services out of the aging Wycombe Tower Block, which is unfit for long-term use.

Key civil works will formally start this month to prepare the site for the new facility, which will be created using 298 precisely engineered structural steel modules factory manufactured off site – just one element of the Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) used to create the new building.

The purpose-built development will deliver a range of vital services including cardiology, stroke-care, operating theatres, and critical care in future phases of the project. The first new clinical facility – an Endoscopy Department – is planned to open in 2027. The co-location of existing services into the new facility will provide clinical accommodation to improve clinical adjacencies, efficiencies, patient safety, and enhance the patient and staff experience.

Llantrisant Health Park will see the former British Airways Avionics Engineering site near Cardiff transformed into a c.17,300m² state-of-the-art healthcare campus. The new landmark diagnostics and treatment centre for South East Wales will consist of three buildings with supporting infrastructure, to create a Community Diagnostics Hub and Treatment Centre.

MTX has been appointed under a Pre-Construction Services Agreement (PCSA) to deliver Phase 1 of the development, which focuses on the design and construction of the 7,500m² Community Diagnostics Hub.

The hub will be set across three floors, housing a range of advanced diagnostic and treatment facilities. The ground floor will include MRI, CT, ultrasound, and plain film X-ray suites, alongside dedicated endoscopy procedure rooms, follow-up screening, and clinical services. The second floor will accommodate plant rooms and a training area for staff, including an Endoscopy Academy designed to provide a high-quality regional NHS training centre for endoscopists.

Both projects are being delivered using MTX’s hybrid MMC approach; designed to give Trusts high quality, permanent, and totally compliant estate assets in the shortest possible timescales.

Setting the standard in healthcare construction

MTX managing director David Hartley has spent a lifetime in the construction sector. He founded MTX with his father in 2002 and was later joined in the business by his brother, Steven. MTX has a proven track record of delivering high quality results on time and to budget; setting the standard for the application of MMC facilities within the healthcare sector. The family-run company is committed to providing the NHS with exceptional healthcare spaces via their full-service construction, combining design, build, finance, operation, and maintenance expertise for projects across the UK. 

David Hartley explains: “Our work with the NHS is a huge source of pride within the business. MTX has developed its own refined approach to Modern Methods of Construction, by adopting the most efficient elements, such as modular building techniques, and combining that with aspects of traditional construction methods alongside highly efficient project management.” 

From financial structuring to long-term facilities support, MTX offers NHS Trusts one single, streamlined route from conception to completion. Many of their projects start with a Pre-Construction Services Agreement (PCSA), which allows early contractor involvement in the design process and means MTX can support the Trust from the concept and planning stage, through to project handover and beyond.

Its dedicated pre-construction team includes specialist healthcare architects who design any new facility in close collaboration with clinicians, estate managers, and patient representatives; ensuring every design maximises efficiency, functionality, and patient experience. 

Importantly, because MTX is, at its core, a construction company, how the new facility will be built is a constant element in the design process – meaning more efficient completion of the project. 

David adds: “We have also developed our own Managed Service offering that removes capital barriers to delivering urgently needed clinical facilities. This method secures VAT-efficient third-party funding, leases the facility to the Trust, and maintains it until ownership transfers the asset at the end of the agreed term. Our initiative echoes the government’s determination to create a new form of Private Public Partnership that can enable new investment in NHS assets.”

Maximising value for the NHS

The Wycombe and Llantrisant projects are the latest in a series of large-scale NHS assets awarded to MTX. Later this year, the team will hand over the new Surgical Elective Centre (SEC) at Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital, which is being delivered through MTX’s innovative VAT recoverable Managed Service model.

Working in collaboration with Oxford University Hospitals (OUH) NHS Foundation Trust, a compliant f inancial solution was developed in accordance with COS 45, enabling the Trust to recover VAT and unlock significant savings – maximising value for money over the full contract lifecycle. This financial model removes the need for upfront capital expenditure, providing a predictable monthly payment structure and the transfer of operational risk. 

The five-storey surgical centre for OUH NHS Foundation Trust has been constructed using a total of 365 offsite manufactured structural steel modules, installed over eight weeks during summer 2025.

The ability to manufacture a structure before groundworks are complete is one of the factors that enables MTX to deliver the new facilities in a shorter contract timescale and more cost-effectively than using traditional building techniques.

The surgical hub will open to the public in phases, with the first phase comprising seven new operating theatres on Level One of the 7,541 sqm building.

This includes two hybrid operating theatres that combine medical imaging and conventional surgical suites into one treatment space, enabling the Trust to offer the most up-to date procedures across multiple specialities.

Hybrid operating theatres can be used for both minimally invasive and open surgical procedures. They allow surgeons to perform imaging, biopsy, diagnosis, and surgery in the same room, and remove the need to move a patient between an imaging suite and an operating room – which means operations can be completed more quickly and recovery time for patients is improved.

Once completed, the SEC will boost capacity for complex routine procedures and support growing demand across the Thames Valley.

Community Diagnostic Centres

Another way in which MTX is supporting growing patient demand across the UK is through the design and delivery of Community Diagnostic Centres.

 By increasing diagnostic capacity in community settings, these centres are able to cut waiting times, improve patient experience, and reduce health inequalities by enabling faster diagnosis and treatment pathways. 

MTX is recognised as an expert in the rapid and cost effective delivery of CDCs, employing modern methods such as offsite manufactured structural steel units and modular mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) systems which are assembled on site. The structural steel units are precisely engineered to be craned into place, creating a weatherproof building within weeks of the site preparation, rather than months. 

MTX last year won an award for their simultaneous creation of two CDCs, built concurrently at Skegness and Lincoln, which together delivered more than 100,000 tests and patient procedures in their first year. Building on the success of the facilities, MTX is now extending the Lincoln CDC to further support planned care and additional diagnostic services across the county.

The company is also in the early stages of transforming the derelict former Boston United football ground in Boston, Lincolnshire, into a £24.9m state-of-the-art community diagnostic centre, due to receive its first patients in Spring 2027 – another project for the Lincolnshire Community and Hospitals NHS Group (LCHG).

At the same time, in Pitsea, MTX is currently building the largest CDC in Mid and South Essex. The two-storey centre is due to open in spring 2027 and will play a vital role in improving access to health services; reducing waiting times across the region by providing more than 130,000 extra health checks each year.

The new CDC will also be a key wellbeing hub for the community, offering a range of services including a purpose-built activity centre and a community library. It will include an eight-room endoscopy suite and provide diagnostics including X-rays, CT and MRI scans.

Meeting the demands of modern healthcare

With pressure on NHS estates continuing to intensify, MTX’s expanding project portfolio underlines the growing role of modern methods of construction in delivering real world capacity at pace.

For MTX, the focus remains on working collaboratively with NHS Trusts to meet the demands of modern healthcare – better, faster, and greener than ever.