MTX completes complex delivery of 32 bed short-stay ward on top of London’s busiest A&E department at Northwick Park Hospital
A £20 million 32-bed short-stay ward for Northwick Park Hospital has been created above London’s busiest A&E Department by modern methods of construction specialist MTX, in one of the most complex build programmes ever undertaken by the company.
A total of 32 structural steel modules manufactured offsite were used to construct the new ward on a steel deck installed on existing concrete stub columns that were part of the original A&E department build.
The challenging location in the middle of the busy hospital site required the use of one of Europe’s heaviest lifting tower cranes, around 40 metres high and with a ‘reach’ of 80 metres. Every component of the new ward had to be lifted onto the construction deck, including 200 tonnes of steel and almost 2000 construction boards.
Over the course of 150 days, the site team successfully completed more than 2000 lifts with zero safety incidents. MTX constructed additional site infrastructure including high strength concrete foundations and piling to support the tower crane.
MTX has extensive experience working on hospital sites and the team pride themselves on being able to deliver contracts with minimum disruption to the vital services provided by the medical staff. At Northwick Park, this meant maintaining safe access to the A&E Department for both pedestrians and ambulances throughout the build programme.
MTX built an ultra-strong crash deck above the entrance to the A&E to protect staff and visitors, and prioritised the safety of its own staff and contractors by building a pedestrian bridge over a busy road on site to enable continuous access to the build location.
Project lead Ian Brook explains: “There were a number of critical factors that had to be considered throughout the build – working on top of London’s busiest A&E department, interacting with the public and staff, and ensuring the large number of deliveries and vehicle movements did not impact on the ambulance routes and access to the clinical areas.”
The new unit incorporates 32 short-stay beds and ancillary areas and is finished to the high-quality build standard that has established MTX as a leading supplier of new healthcare facilities. The programme included designing and installing mechanical modules pre-manufactured offsite to control the ventilation and the environment of the wards, with a dedicated integrated plant facility provided within the new building as part of the M&E specification.
The new first floor construction links to the existing hospital buildings via a 35 metre-long suspended connecting corridor. Two more 10-metre bridges link to existing stairwells to provide access for staff and visitors.
Using modern methods of construction (MMC) and Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DfMA) principles enables MTX to deliver new facilities faster, safer, greener and more cost effectively than with conventional building methods.
Northwick Park Hospital, situated on the outskirts of Harrow in North West London, is managed by the London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust. The new £20 million state-of-the-art short-stay ward is designed to enhance the quality of care provided to patients at Northwick Park, and is part of an NHS England initiative to meet the growing demands for general and acute beds across the country.
Trust Chief Executive Pippa Nightingale said: “We have one of the biggest and busiest A&Es in the country so this is a welcome and much needed addition to our capacity.
“It’s crucial to maintain flow through the hospital so we have enough beds. An enormous amount of work goes on behind-the-scenes every day to ensure this happens. The new unit will help us better manage this.”
MTX Managing Director David Hartley explains: “We have worked with the Trust on previous projects and we are immensely proud to deliver this new facility for them. Our team at MTX recognises that these new beds were urgently needed at Northwick Park and we worked closely with the Trust to progress the build programme as swiftly and safely as possible. Such a major development within the busy hospital site inevitably involved some disruption to existing access and traffic management arrangements, but our close collaboration with the Trust team sought to mitigate the impact on patients and staff.”
