Yorkon News Archives

05/07/2001 – Northallerton Healthcare completes ward expansion plan

Northallerton Healthcare NHS Trust has expanded its ward accommodation at Friarage Hospital following the transfer of Ministry of Defence health services from Catterick Garrison to Northallerton.

As a result of the contract, the Trust had a requirement to increase bed capacity at the hospital by around 15 per cent. In a contract worth in the region of £3m, two purpose-designed buildings were manufactured by Portakabin subsidiary and modular building specialists, Yorkon. The buildings were delivered to site by road as steel-framed modules, complete with plumbing, electrics, partitions, internal doors and windows. This highly innovative construction method reduced the programme time from around 12 months to just 26 weeks.

The new three-storey building accommodates a 27-bed orthopaedic ward, a 29-bed surgical ward, and offices and meeting rooms for Ministry of Defence personnel. This is linked at first floor level to the two-storey Millennium Building, which provides an intensive therapy unit on the ground floor and two six-bed wards and two single-bed wards on the first floor.

“We were very impressed with the rapid progress of both schemes since the start of work on site”, said Chairman of Northallerton Healthcare, Brigadier Johnny Wardle. “The modular building method also ensured that disruption to our existing operations was minimised during construction because so much of the work took place off-site in York. The quality of the buildings is excellent, helping us to provide the best possible health services to army personnel, their families and the people of Northallerton.”

David Johnson, Yorkon's Operations Manager, added, “The modular technique allowed the Trust to develop a constrained plot of land on the site at Friarage Hospital. By going down the modular route, the construction work was safe, quiet and clean; there were fewer deliveries to site than if the schemes had been built using traditional methods, and much less space was needed for the storage of building materials. This meant that disruption to the provision of patient services was significantly reduced throughout the building programme.”

The new ward accommodation was designed by Yorkon to be energy efficient and features a pitched roof, easy to clean windows and a combination of brickwork and stone-coloured cladding to complement the existing buildings at Friarage Hospital.