Redevelopment of the West Cumberland Hospital

What We Did

The redevelopment consists of a mixture 22,125 m2 of new building, the refurbishment of 5,500 m2 of retained estate and updating the energy infrastructure. Services are being reconfigured to align them with best practice policies and Cumbria’s Closer to Home strategy to deliver more procedures and care in the community. The intention was not only to deliver significant improvements in the efficiency of services within the main hospital, but to create an environment that helps attract the best medical professionals.

The design of the hospital has focussed on the organisation of the emergency and theatre units to create a leaner and ultimately flexible hospital. Wherever possible all the departments are based on generic planning and the standardisation of all key clinical rooms such as clean and dirty utilities, bedrooms, C/E rooms, treatment rooms and patient ‘cabins’ in A&E, theatres and endoscopy.

The departmental clinical adjacencies were key to achieving an efficient and patient focussed environment, ensuring that patient access to outpatient facilities was close to the main entrance, visitor access to wards is clear and that in patient accommodation is physically separate from the main circulation routes allowing patients to be transferred around the hospital as required in absolute dignity.

BIM

This was our first ‘major project using the Revit Architecture software and the benefits of holding clinical user group meetings in a live 3D environment making alterations to the model in ‘real time’ have proved invaluable. More importantly, the clinical teams have a complete understanding of what has been agreed and confidence in that what they have been asked to ‘sign off’ fully meets their expectations.

Off-site manufacture is also a key element to this project and the level of detail within our drawings/Revit model has allowed a high percentage of the building fabric to be manufactured off site, thereby helping to reduce the overall construction programme and improve quality with many building elements being fabricated in a controlled factory environment. 

John Cooper Architecture and Gilling Dod Architects were selected by Laing O’Rourke under the original P21 Framework to deliver the design for the new Hospital, with JCA producing the original 1:200 design and Gilling Dod Architects developing that design through to completion.

Client Quote

The new hospital is something for the community of West Cumbria to celebrate and we can’t wait for staff, patients and visitors to see their new state-of-the-art facility.

~ Les Morgan, Director of Redevelopment for the Trust