CTM UHB opens an endoscopy complex within six weeks, and a four-theatre surgical suite within nine weeks
The need:
A critical incident was declared at the Princess of Wales Hospital 10th October 2024. Cwm Taf Morgannwg Health Board was forced to close eight theatres and ten wards, and to relocate the Intensive Care Unit. The closures and the decanting of services to other appropriate spaces meant that, at a time of high pressure on Welsh hospitals to reduce waiting lists, capacity for orthopaedic surgery and endoscopy was particularly under threat.
The Health Board urgently needed to find alternative capacity and avoid falling behind in its efforts to reduce patients' waiting times.
The plan:
The Health Board, working with Vanguard, assessed the options across its hospital estates. Quickly, they developed a plan to add four surgical theatres, two wards and an endoscopy complex to the capacity at the Royal Glamorgan Hospital. The endoscopy facilities would include two treatment rooms, a five bay ward and endoscope sterilisation.
Installing the facility, called 'the mini-hospital' by CTM staff, within the space between the main hospital building and the road would be a challenge, as would the target of installing and opening the endoscopy facilities within six weeks and the theatre complex within nine.
“The complexity of the site we're trying to fit it into has been a challenge and the team from Vanguard have been really helpful, working with our own estate services to make sure that we can do that. The responsiveness, whenever we've identified a challenge, everyone's been focused on how do we make the solution work and how do we get there. The consistent primary aim for all of us has been to get these facilities mobilised as quickly as possible.”
The solution:
The endoscopy complex comprises two mobile facilities, each delivered by an HGV, seamlessly joined to provide, under one roof, two treatment rooms, a ward, and scope sterilisation.
To build a fully integrated surgical facility, Vanguard installed four mobile theatres and, using modern methods of construction, built two modular wards and support rooms including reception, consultation rooms, staff welfare rooms and changing rooms.
A critical incident was declared at the Princess of Wales Hospital 10th October 2024. Cwm Taf Morgannwg Health Board was forced to close eight theatres and ten wards, and to relocate the Intensive Care Unit. The closures and the decanting of services to other appropriate spaces meant that, at a time of high pressure on Welsh hospitals to reduce waiting lists, capacity for orthopaedic surgery and endoscopy was particularly under threat.
The Health Board urgently needed to find alternative capacity and avoid falling behind in its efforts to reduce patients' waiting times.
The plan:
The Health Board, working with Vanguard, assessed the options across its hospital estates. Quickly, they developed a plan to add four surgical theatres, two wards and an endoscopy complex to the capacity at the Royal Glamorgan Hospital. The endoscopy facilities would include two treatment rooms, a five bay ward and endoscope sterilisation.
Installing the facility, called 'the mini-hospital' by CTM staff, within the space between the main hospital building and the road would be a challenge, as would the target of installing and opening the endoscopy facilities within six weeks and the theatre complex within nine.
The solution:
The endoscopy complex comprises two mobile facilities, each delivered by an HGV, seamlessly joined to provide, under one roof, two treatment rooms, a ward, and scope sterilisation.
To build a fully integrated surgical facility, Vanguard installed four mobile theatres and, using modern methods of construction, built two modular wards and support rooms including reception, consultation rooms, staff welfare rooms and changing rooms.
The outcome:
The endoscopy complex opened to patients on the 17th February. The first procedures in the surgical facility were on the 4th April. A herculean effort by the health board to assess their needs, identify Vanguard as the supplier that could meet the capacity, speed and budget requirements, and manage the movement of patient care, had resulted in the 'mini-hospital' being in place within six-months of the emergency being declared by the Health Board.
For their part, Vanguard had provided the endoscopy complex within six weeks of starting groundworks, and the four-theatre, two-ward surgical facility within nine.