UPFRONT All images ©BDP / Michael Whitestone
THE LANDSCAPE OF CRITICAL CARE A super hospital that blends into the landscape may sound like the definition of the impossible, but that was the design approach for the Grange University Hospital, Gwent, conceived and delivered by global interdisciplinary design practice BDP, which this year celebrates its 60th anniversary. new 560-bed specialist T hecritical care hospital, situated five miles north of Newport, opened in November last year four months ahead of schedule, under budget and in time to play its part in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. Set amongst the sweeping hills to the east of Cwmbran, the state-of-the-art facility is specially designed to maximise efficiency whilst offering a calm and pleasant environment for patients, staff and visitors, with a view – literally – to speeding up recovery time and attracting the best talent. This new critical care facility, delivered under the Welsh Assembly Government’s Designed for Life Strategy – which sets a long-term framework for improving National Health Services – provides specialist treatment for the most critically ill patients with the most complex needs. The facility has 15 wards and 434 inpatient ward beds in total, the vast majority in single en-suite rooms, plus 11
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operating theatres including two obstretric theatres, a 24hour acute assessment unit and an emergency department. The system and building are designed around minimising length of stay, specifically for the period requiring critical intervention, in order to discharge people back to local hospitals, care facilities or home as quickly as possible.
Moving with the times More than a decade in the making from concept to completion, which is, of course, relatively fast for a complex medical facility at the centre of a regional healthcare system, devising and delivering a flexible, adaptable design was fundamental. Creating a facility that can evolve with advances in treatment and care, adapt to a population’s changing healthcare needs and enable continuous improvement and system transformation is the only way to ensure to deliver a hospital capable of standing the test of time.
Flexibility to adapt to design, technology and construction changes over the course of a decade is also hugely important and applies not only to medical treatment and technologies. For example, energy supply has changed significantly in terms of systems of provision and environmental impact. At the start of this project, biomass boilers were the sustainable solution of choice. By the time the hospital was being built, combined heat and power was the way forward with biomass no longer the power source of choice. At the other end of the scale, light fittings were switched to far more energy-efficient LEDs, which had become commercially viable during the lifetime of the project.
Direction of travel The BDP team used its experience and expertise in healthcare design, following landmark hospital projects across the UK including Southmead Hospital, Bristol and Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham to build on NHS guidelines in areas such as space and ergonomics, to create facilities designed around optimising patient flow and experience. Allowed greater freedom in design as a result of the NHS’ recent Designed for Life Framework, which aims to capitalise on supply chain expertise and learning, BDP was able to transfer learning and experience to incorporate the most up-to-date design and technologies.
