Urgent Treatment Centre at Northampton General Hospital

The project began by looking beyond the requirement for additional space and understanding how the existing emergency department and surrounding estate worked in practice.

Health Spaces worked closely with a multidisciplinary group of clinical users, estates teams, infection prevention and control specialists and other stakeholders through workshops and technical engagement. The existing layout was reviewed to identify operational inefficiencies and opportunities to extend the building, while the team also assessed the infrastructure required to support the development.

This process identified constraints that could have affected the project later if they had not been considered from the outset. In particular, the existing fire strategy within the older part of the building provided only one established means of escape and relied on temporary evacuation arrangements. The project created an opportunity to establish a longer-term solution supporting progressive horizontal evacuation.

Health Spaces also worked with the estates team to understand existing building services capacity and maintenance requirements, ensuring that the developing solution reflected the realities of the hospital’s infrastructure.

The project also built on an earlier concept strategy developed by Health Spaces with the Trust. When capital funding became available through NHS England, Health Spaces helped the Trust revisit the original proposals and establish how much of the scope could realistically be delivered within the available allocation. This meant balancing the immediate need for additional clinical capacity with wider estate improvements, ensuring the project remained both affordable and aligned with the Trust’s priorities.

Health Spaces also developed the business case and coordinated early engagement with NHS England and other key stakeholders, helping the Trust secure approval on its first submission.

To provide cost certainty from the outset, Health Spaces committed to a Target Construction Sum (TCS), establishing a maximum construction cost for the remainder of the design development. This gave the Trust and its cost consultants confidence in the project’s affordability, while providing a clear financial framework for design decisions. As the design progressed, the final Contract Sum was agreed at a value below the original TCS.

Health Spaces’ delivery team was also involved from the early stages, identifying the need for a temporary decant facility to maintain existing A&E services during construction. This ensured that operational requirements were considered from the outset, helping to minimise disruption to the live hospital environment.

With the strategic and technical parameters established, Health Spaces led the planning, design management and pre-construction development of the new two-storey UTC.

Alongside design development, Health Spaces managed the town planning and highways applications from start to finish, engaging early with the relevant authorities to secure the necessary third-party consents. This proactive approach helped prevent approval processes from delaying the construction programme. Early alignment on procurement and commercial strategy, together with securing long-lead capacity, also helped reduce the risk of delays as the project moved towards delivery.

Clinical and estates teams remained closely involved as the design developed, helping refine patient pathways, waiting areas, examination rooms and staff facilities. Health Spaces also collaborated with NHS England’s national urgent and emergency care teams to ensure the developing UTC reflected relevant policy and guidance.

Throughout design development, Health Spaces maintained close alignment between the clinical brief, project scope and agreed construction budget. The Trust was kept informed of design decisions and their cost implications, allowing changes to be assessed against the Target Construction Sum and ensuring affordability remained central to the process.

Multidisciplinary design coordination was managed through BIM, bringing architectural, structural, civil, mechanical, electrical, fire and sustainability requirements into a shared digital environment. The design was developed to an early construction level of detail so that manufacture could begin off site while groundworks progressed at the hospital.

The result was a 675m² GIFA facility designed around both the clinical needs of urgent care and the operational realities of the existing hospital.

Delivering the UTC within the existing hospital campus presented a significant logistical challenge. Construction took place alongside a fully operational Emergency Department, with ambulance access needing to be maintained throughout, while the site also contained extensive underground services and an existing roadway.

Health Spaces worked closely with the Trust’s estates and site teams, clinical stakeholders, ambulance services and local authority and highways teams to coordinate construction around the hospital’s day-to-day operations. With planning consents, procurement arrangements and key programme requirements addressed early, the delivery team was able to focus on managing construction safely and efficiently within the constrained live hospital environment.

An innovative screw-pile foundation solution provided greater flexibility around the existing underground infrastructure and reduced disruption. At the same time as foundations were being constructed on site, 18 modular units were manufactured off site.

The modules arrived approximately 60% complete and the entire two-storey building structure was installed in just five days. By overlapping factory manufacture with activity on site, the project programme was shortened by approximately four months compared with traditional construction methods.

Close collaboration with the Trust’s estates team also helped Health Spaces understand the practical requirements of the live hospital environment, ensuring construction activities were carefully coordinated around ongoing maintenance and operational needs.

Construction began in January 2026 and the new Urgent Treatment Centre opened to patients in September 2026 – delivering the facility in less than 9 months.