A new 2 storey emergency department expansion, delivered to Leighton Hospital, championing Modern Methods of Construction (MMC).
The Requirements
Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust had a requirement to expand their current accident and emergency capabilities in order to cater for a larger patient intake across the Crewe area.
Leighton Hospital is the biggest care facility under the Trust and has seen substantial investment in recent years, since its origination in 1972. The new emergency department extension provides capacity for additional accident and emergency services, encompassed within a state-of-the-art offsite building.
The Solution
Opened by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Sajid Javid, this new building delivered by ingenious healthcare construction leaders MTX, provides a larger, safer and superior environment for patients and staff at this Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust location.
Cutting edge collaborative architectural and M&E design, together with our passionate MTX project team expertise, resulted in an aesthetically pleasing, fit for purpose modern facility.
Over 2 storeys of accommodation, MTX have increased the number of treatment rooms, rapid assessment rooms, isolation bays, resus bays and mental health assessment rooms, in addition to providing a new bereavement suite, CT and X-Ray capabilities and a dedicated paediatrics unit on the ground floor. The first floor houses reserved staff areas, such as offices and the new emergency department’s plant room.
The project also yields efficiencies and delivers greater clinical effectiveness through the co-location of the new build to the old site, allowing the relocation of ambulatory care services into the existing footprint. This, in effect, achieves the development of an Urgent Care Village which will support more cohesive working and improve patient experience and reduce assessment times.
Modern Methods of Construction has provided Leighton Hospital with 4,200m² of new emergency care accommodation, with purpose-built links connecting to the existing accident and emergency department and the other to the CDU (Critical Decisions Unit). 100 modules were delivered and used in total.
The new facility provides Leighton Hospital with much needed additional A&E capacity and successfully achieved a BREEAM score of ‘Very Good’.
Main Considerations
As the extension was built into the existing A&E department, MTX were constantly working within a live and busy environment throughout the duration of the works. Constructed during the time of the Covid-19 pandemic, the department saw increased demands on an already strained service.
To ensure as little impact as possible to the day to day running of the A&E, MTX created our own service road off the highway, for module and materials deliveries. This ensured that the main hospital was completely avoided.
The module installation took place over 3 phases. One section was completed within a week, followed by a 2 week period of first fix M&E installation and repeated twice more, until all 100 modules were in place.
This was contrary to the original programme which would have seen the concurrent delivery and installation of all modules alongside the first fix M&E. However, due to Covid-19 disruptions, Brexit repercussions and steelwork delivery delays as a result of the March 2021 blockage on the Suez Canal, this had to be reconsidered and a practical, productive and successful phased approach put in place.
