Arrowe Park Hospital

The refurbishment works involved the upgrade of 22 bedrooms and en suites to create modern facilities that help staff provide improved patient care.

This included minor demolition, flooring, painting and decorating, sanitaryware, and extensive mechanical and electrical works.

The works were phased, with eight rooms being worked on at a time, allowing for ward staff to continue to care for patients whilst the works went ahead.

Ward 30 is located on the third floor of the hospital, and both the wider hospital and the ward remained live throughout the project.

Additionally, the works began at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, where the hospital was being used as the designated quarantine facility for British people who had recently returned from China.

These factors meant that infection control was critical, so we worked closely with the hospital’s team, including the Ward Manager, Ward Sister, and infection control team to devise a methodology that would ensure construction debris and dust were controlled and that the risk of spreading the coronavirus was minimised.

This included suppression tools to prevent and contain the creation of dust, as well as full internal hoarding, with dust mats and other tools to stop its migration into live parts of the ward.

A strict regime of housekeeping was also used to complement this. Waste was also double bagged and sealed before transportation out of the work areas.

We also worked closely with the Ward Manager and Ward Sister to co-ordinate the phasing, with patients decanted into newly completed areas to allow for the next phase to proceed. This ensured a smooth transition between phases without delays and minimal disruption to patients.

Using these measures, we were able to successfully deliver the Ward 30 refurbishment project without incident and with minimal disruption to patients on the ward and in the rest of the hospital. This allowed us to hand over the project free of defects, on time, and on budget during a particularly difficult time of the COVID-19 pandemic.