Kier : Leading provider of healthcare buildings Kier wins £87m project at Musgrove Park Hospital

Kier, a leading provider of healthcare facilities, has been appointed by Somerset NHS Foundation Trust to deliver a new surgical centre for Musgrove Park Hospital. The £87m transformation project will provide a new building and state-of-the-art amenities to support the Trust's aim of improving its patients' experience.

Procured through the Department for Health & Social Care's P22 framework, the new surgical centre will include eight operating theatres, six endoscopy rooms with a patient recovery and clinical support area as well as a critical care unit with 22 beds, specifically catering for level 2 and 3 critical care patients.

Kier is already on site carrying out enabling works for the surgical centre and will commence the construction of the sterile services department in February 2021, which is the first phase of the works leading to the development of the surgical centre that will start in 2022.

Working collaboratively with Somerset NHS Foundation Trust, Kier is also delivering a new Acute Assessment Hub at the hospital as part of its Musgrove 2030 plan, which aims to radically transform the hospital's estate.

Anthony Irving, managing director of Kier Regional Building Western & Wales, states: 'We are delighted the green light has been given to construct the new Surgical centre at Musgrove Park. Over the past two years, we have worked collaboratively with Somerset NHS Foundation Trust to develop this scheme that will provide first-class facilities.

'We will utilise our vast experience within the healthcare sector to deliver both the Surgical Centre and the Acute Assessment Hub at Musgrove that will support the Trust in providing important services for the people of Somerset.'

Commenting on the green light for the surgical centre, Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock said: 'I'm delighted to give plans for the new Taunton Surgical Centre the green light. The new £87 million centre will replace the oldest operating theatres still in use in England with state of the art new theatres and critical care facilities.

'This is great news for staff and local residents, who will also benefit from the new Musgrove Park Hospital which we are backing as one of the 40 new hospitals which will be built by 2030. This is all part of our plan to build back better - by investing in NHS buildings for the long term my ambition is for local people to benefit from world-class NHS facilities for many years to come.'

Dr Daniel Meron, chief medical officer at Somerset NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Musgrove Park Hospital, said the news was a huge boost for people in Somerset.

'We are delighted that funding for the new surgical centre has been fully approved by the government,' he said. 'This will be a huge boost to the people of Somerset.

'This is an exciting news and the start of our ambitious plans as part of the Musgrove 2030 programme, which will allow us to progress the next stage of the development under the new hospital build programme

'The quality of care provided to our patients is something we are very proud of and we want to support people to stay as well as possible and have the right services in place to support them in the community.

'We want to support our excellent clinical and non-clinical teams to further improve the outstanding care they provide to our patients and we are very excited at the prospect of being able to care for and treat our patients in state-of-the-art operating theatres and critical care facilities.

'Work has already started on the site to clear older buildings ready for the main construction phase and we currently estimate the new centre will be open for patients in 2024.'

Nick Fairham, principal at architecture practice BDP, who has been carrying out design work for the Musgrove 2030 modernisation programme since it began including the hospital's Jubilee Building which opened in 2014, said:

'In line with the wider modernisation and transformation of Musgrove Park Hospital, patient, staff and visitor experience is at the heart of the new surgical centre's design. This includes everything from creating high dependency and recovery space immediately adjacent to the theatres so that patients remain within the care of their specialist team after their surgery, to maximising opportunity for daylight and views of the gardens. The centre will be connected to both the Concourse and Jubilee buildings by glazed links overlooking landscaped and planted courtyards helping patients to move from one area to another, enabling easy access for visitors and improving efficiency for staff.'

This award win reinforces Kier's position as a leading provider of healthcare facilities, with other live projects including the £98m transformation programme at Heatherwood Hospital and the £97.1m scheme for Heartlands Hospital in Birmingham.