Premier Modular has announced its largest offsite construction contract to date within the health sector with plans to create a £21m outpatient facility at King’s College Hospital in London.
The 3,450sq m, four-storey scheme is Premier’s largest single healthcare project in its 65-year history and will enable King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust to free up space within the main hospital to help reduce waiting times and improve the patient experience.
Reducing waiting times
As main contractor, Premier will be leading the project team, which also includes delivery partner, Claritas, P+HS Architects, and M&E specialist, TClarke.
Awarded under the Crown Commercial Service modular buildings framework, the project follows the team’s successful delivery of a £10m contract for the offsite construction of a 62-bed priority assessment unit at St Peter’s Hospital in Chertsey.
The new outpatient services building will provide 48 purpose-designed consultation rooms and eight procedure rooms for a range of services, including dermatology, rheumatology, respiratory, neurosciences, pain management, and urology, as well as other aspects of surgery and therapies.
Dan Allison, divisional director at Premier Modular, said: “Offsite construction is safer, quieter, and cleaner than in-situ construction, which will radically reduce disruption during the build phase to staff and patients, and the surrounding residential community.
“This type of building solution is also enormously beneficial on restricted hospital sites such as this, reducing the amount of plant, materials, and vehicle movements to site by undertaking as much work in the factory as we can.”
Minimising the impact
The building is designed to minimise impact on the environment over its life and is targeting a BREEAM ‘excellent’ rating.
It will have areas of green roof to encourage biodiversity, a highly-insulated building fabric to reduce heat loss and running costs, energy-efficient ventilation, an electric air source heat pump system for heating, and solar panels for electricity generation.
And P+HS Architects has designed the façade to mimic existing buildings on the campus.
Internally, a double-height feature entrance will provide visibility and bring high levels of natural light into the reception and waiting area.
The interior design will be crisp and modern, while assisting patients with sensory needs.
To maintain patient flows, the new facility will be linked to the Normanby Building at ground-floor level.