Homerton Hospital

Detailed cost advice and modelling

Homerton University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is a medium-sized local hospital providing acute and community services for Hackney, East London, and the surrounding communities. It also provides a range of specialist services for a much wider population.

The works have been mainly refurbishment and extensions, and have ranged in value from £100,000 to £8 million.

Our cost consultants have provided detailed cost advice to inform the business case process from the outset, and our cost modelling has been tailored to suit the trust’s specific requirements.

We have also introduced risk management techniques, promoting early identification of risk and agreed mitigation strategies.

Overseeing project delivery

Our project managers have been responsible for co-ordinating the delivery of all professional services on the projects, including the architect, structural engineer, mechanical and electrical engineer and CDM co-ordinator.

As part of this role we have produced project delivery programmes and proactively managed the delivery process. We have also promoted the importance of all parties of adhering to the trust’s cost and change control procedures.

We have worked closely with a variety of clinician groups and understand the importance of the consultation process and the need to sometimes manage expectations.

Clinicians have also enabled us to develop a clear understanding of how their service functions and the impact the proposed works may have.

Finding a fast-track solution

One of the projects we have been involved in is an annual ward refurbishment programme. Undertaken during the summer months, this takes advantage of the seasonal drop in inpatient numbers.

A fast-track solution was implemented to enable refurbishment works to start onsite six weeks from the initial briefing and be completed within 12 weeks to allow the ward to be reopened.

Tender documents were prepared in two weeks and tendered to four carefully selected contractors with previous experience in fast-track hospital schemes.

In the meantime, the design was developed and the trust raised orders for specialist products such as bed-head trunking, staff base and nurse station desking, ward bay sliding doors and cabinetry, in order to reduce lead-in times once the contract was let.

Achieving high standards

The end product was not compromised by this fast-track approach.

The refurbishments introduced a bold non-institutional colour scheme, coupled with improvements to bed head trunking, lighting and hand wash facilities.

In addition, high quality glazed screen and non-touch sliding doors were installed in two of the ward bays.