Health Spaces & James Paget University Hospital win ‘Best Modular Healthcare Facility’
Health Spaces and James Paget University Hospital are delighted to have won Best Modular Healthcare Facility for the Concept Ward.
The new Concept Ward has received a top accolade at the annual Building Better Healthcare awards ceremony celebrating the best in healthcare construction.
The Concept Ward opened earlier this year, providing both patients and staff with a glimpse of how care will be delivered on the wards of the future. It features an innovative mix of single en-suite rooms and two four-bedded bays, and is a key element to the hospital’s estates masterplan to create a new health care campus including a new hospital by 2030.
James Paget staff had an input into the design of the ward, which was constructed by Health Spaces using Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) with modular units constructed offsite, to save time and reduce disruption at the hospital.
At Wednesday’s 2023 Building Better Healthcare Awards held in London, the Concept Ward took the honours in the Best Modular/Mobile Healthcare Facility category, beating competition from 10 other projects nationwide.
Celebrating its 25th anniversary, this yearâs competition was judged by a 12-strong panel of industry leaders who presented awards across four key areas â estates and facilities management, building design, the patient environment, and healthcare technology.
And there were also three special award categories this year â the Patientsâ Choice Award, Cliniciansâ Choice Award, and the Grand Prix Design Award.
Winners ranged from major new hospital developments, to small, but game-changing community-based facilities; and from technology to help patients self manage their medical conditions, to impressive arts projects which are helping to humanise hospital environments.
Through the estates and facilities awards, the ceremony also recognised some of the people behind these achievements, who have kept the healthcare estate operational through the most challenging of times.
Best Healthcare Modular Facility – Delivered via MMC
 âConcept Wardâ – James Paget University Hospital. Designed & Built by Health Spaces
“We looked at the needs of now, and the needs of the future, and tried to marry the two together in a cohesive way. I think itâs been a really good partnership. Having the impact of design and the impact of patient care – and the staff providing that – all coming together for the benefits of the patients – has been really powerful.” – Mark Flynn, Director of Strategic Projects, James Paget University Hospital
This new hospital project was part of an estates programme to provide urgent patient space as James Paget University Hospital underwent precautionary remedial work. The initial plan was to use the space as a decant ward. However, as the hospital was selected to join the New Hospital Programme, the space presented a unique opportunity to trial principles related to the NHP, forming a critical âtest bedâ to trial innovative ways of working, new technologies, the impact of single in-patient rooms, and Modern Methods of Construction techniques.
Seeing different speciality wards from the main hospital including emergency surgery, acute medicine, paediatrics and orthopaedic surgery, the ward, named the âConcept Wardâ, has formed a critical research centre.Â
The results of the research, sponsored by Staffordshire University, will inform future designs at the hospital, the wider Trust, the NHS, and healthcare communities internationally.Â
âThe creation of the Concept Ward is the most exciting project of my nursing career. When we were given the funding to build a âdecantâ ward so we could move patients from the main hospital to allow maintenance work to take place, we saw that we had a golden opportunity to create something unique. Weâve been selected as a site for a new hospital – and we want to make sure that it is designed to offer our local community the best possible healthcare facilities.” – Paul Morris, Chief Nurse, James Paget University Hospital.
“This is where the Concept Ward comes in. It provides us with the perfect âtest bedâ where we can trial innovative ways of working and use new technologies. Feedback from patients and staff will be key – and, as the facility is used in the coming months by different specialty wards from the hospital – so we will build a rich picture from their experiences.
“The Concept Ward provides us with the opportunity to carry out pioneering research into modern ward design. With its âhybridâ mix of single en-suite rooms and two four-bedded bays, the ward will help us understand the whole impact of the ward environment on both patients and staff. Itâs fascinating work – and weâve teamed up with Staffordshire University to undertake this research. Once completed, we hope it will inform modern ward design in our new hospital here at Gorleston – and others nationwide.â – Paul Morris, Chief Nurse.
The space also trialled a modular (MMC) approach to healthcare design and build â highlighting the advantages to using a bespoke approach to standardisation, combining unique design elements with standardised designs.
“Our Concept Ward may stand just a few steps from our main hospital building – but it represents a giant leap forward in terms of design and construction” – Mark Flynn, Director of Strategic Projects, James Paget University Hospital.
âThe ward will be one of the retained buildings within the Estates site strategy and master plan as we move into design and construction of the new hospital. The Concept Ward has given us an opportunity to evaluate new ways of working within a mainly single bed ward and how we can improve our services alongside the design and the use of digitisation. The flexible design of the new ward with increased airflow to the bed areas through specialised ventilation, increasing infrastructure with uprated power and nurse call will enable our project team to relocate our clinical specialities with increased needs such as neo-natal and central delivery, intensive care into the ward, making it a multi-use area fit for all kinds of clinical needs. This will improve our ability to provide healthcare in a clean and safe environment.â – Steve Balls, Head of Estates, Facilities and Planning, Estates Lead for James Paget University Hospital Programme.
