WORK UNDERWAY ON TRANSFORMING CARE AT LEEDS TEACHING HOSPITALS

THE transformation of hospital wards has begun as the first stage of a £34 million scheme to centralise children’s hospital services at Leeds General Infirmary and adult acute medicine and older people’s services at St James’s University Hospital.

Leeds architecture firm Space Group and Laing O’Rourke, Britain’s biggest privately owned construction company, has started the build for the Clinical Services Reconfiguration programme at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.

The entire programme is due to be completed during 2011. The project team will bring together the existing paediatric services, currently based at both St James’s University Hospital and Leeds General Infirmary (LGI), by refurbishing and renovating areas in the Clarendon and Jubilee wings at LGI to provide much improved facilities for children on a single site. Space freed up at St James’s will allow the centralisation of older people’s wards and acute medicine on that site.


The main changes at LGI include additional specialist facilities for children suffering from cancer, cystic fibrosis and serious liver conditions.

New draft ‘air lock’ lobby areas between each of the single patient rooms for children suffering from cancer have been designed by Space to reduce cross infection. The draft lobby area will be a separate room that nursing staff will have to walk through first before they enter the patients’ room from the outside ward.

“It’s a really challenging and interesting project,” explains Gordon Fawcett, Project Manager for Laing O’Rourke.

“The paediatric accommodation is being constructed within the existing buildings, so the Design Team has had to accommodate clinical and spatial requirements on a confined works site. Plus, the new works are adjacent to many wards and departments which are still operational – a major logistics challenge for the construction team.”

The project team has proposed a range of sustainable measures to reduce the impact of the works that could affect patients and the environment.

Space Group CEO Rob Charlton said: “Reusing existing fabric and materials where feasible reduces the environmental impact and lessens the toll on patients and staff.

“Upon completion, the community will benefit from the feel of both brand new paediatric facilities as well as better facilities for acute medicine and older people; a wonderful example of sustainability where the best elements of the old are preserved and augmented with state-of-the-art materials and design techniques.

“The new site will aid the health and well being of the children and the new environment will make their stay more comfortable and pleasant.”