New modular theatre installation at Abergele Hospital to help maintain theatre capacity during refurbishment works at Glan Clywd Hospital.
MTX were approached in February 2011 by the Ysbyty Glan Clwyd NHS Trust who required a new theatre suite to be installed at Abergele Hospital to help manage the Trust’s theatre capacity which was scheduled to be drastically reduced whilst the existing theatres at nearby Glan Clwyd Hospital were closed for refurbishment (a project subsequently completed by MTX in April 2012).
Abergele Hospital, situated a few miles away from the main town centre within the undulating hills of North Wales, posed a few inherent problems as the construction site could only be accessed via an old bridge which had a 25 tonne weight restriction. Whilst the building modules themselves were under this limit, the crane required to manoeuvre the modules into position was in excess of the limit therefore an alternative route had to be found. Thankfully for MTX an alternate ‘logging road’ did exist, which after carrying out some minor works, was assessed by our MTX engineers as safe and fit for purpose.
After overcoming the initial problems, the new building was installed quickly and easily with minimal disruption to the main hospital site in just one day.
The modular building was pre-fabricated in our factory controlled environment and internally and externally fitted out prior to delivery with all conduit drops for electrical and control cabling. The walls were also pre-finished with stelvatite wall panels applied in all sterile areas and with vinyl faced plasterboards in none sterile areas before delivery.
The new theatre installation, linked to the existing hospital street corridor by a large link corridor, comprises of the following;
- UCZ Theatre: 39.5m²
- Preparation: 11m²
- 3 Bed Recovery: 10.5m² bed spaces
- Anaesthetic: 19.5m²
- Dirty Utility: 9m²
- Staff Rest: 17m²
- Admin Office: 14m²
The building is served electrically from the existing mains and installed by MTX as part of our works package. A water supply was also taken from an existing local supply with all hot water requirements being served by point of use water heaters throughout. Ventilation is provided by an off-site constructed plant skid installed externally at the rear of the building. The unit has 3 stages of heating and cooling and a heat recovery system integrated within the unit. Also at the rear of the building is the plant room that houses a UPS/IPS battery back-up system, UCZ canopy control panel, mechanical plant panel and operating light battery-back unit.
The £700,000 project was completed on time and within budget in just 12 weeks from breaking ground to handover. Although built to a fairly basic specification due to the extremely tight budgets available, the new theatre has been finished to an extremely high standard, to which MTX has received very positive feedback from both the client and the end users.
