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16/09/2008 – Yorkon Completes New £5m Ward Building at Walsall Manor Hospital
Off-site construction specialist and Portakabin subsidiary, Yorkon, has completed a £5.5m contract for Skanska to manufacture and fit out a new 136-bed ward building at Walsall Manor Hospital - a week ahead of programme.
The project was part of the advance works package for the £140m redevelopment of the hospital to be completed by Skanska Innisfree under the Private Finance Initiative, replacing outdated buildings with state-of-the-art facilities to enhance patient care.
The four-storey ward building comprises 104 steel-framed modules, which were manufactured off site in York by Yorkon and craned into position in three phases to minimise disruption to the hospital.
It provides modern and spacious accommodation to facilitate improved quality of care and to help with the control of cross infection. Facilities include a combination of six-bed wards and single ensuite bedrooms, nurse base stations on each floor, treatment suites, ward kitchen, offices, day room and relatives room.
Commenting on completion of the new ward building, Sue James, Chief Executive of Walsall Hospitals NHS Trust, said, "We are extremely proud of this new facility which will vastly improve the experience of some of our more vulnerable patients, by providing facilities that are fit for the 21st Century."
Mike Thompson, Technical Director at Skanska, said, "This project went very smoothly, with excellent relations and co-operation between the Trust, Skanska and Yorkon teams. The modular approach brought programme benefits to the project as we were working to a tight deadline for completion. The building was also manufactured in a controlled environment which has quality benefits."
Building off site offers many advantages for the construction of new healthcare facilities. Programme times are reduced by up to 50 per cent, allowing earlier completion and occupation to the benefit of patient care, and disruption to staff, patients and the local community is significantly reduced because the building is manufactured off site. The Yorkon modular system allows a high degree of design flexibility internally and externally, and buildings can be expanded without decanting.
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