Holdsworth Major Trauma Ward Refurbishment

St George’s is one of the UK’s leading teaching hospitals and is the largest provider of acute healthcare services in southwest London. It has one of the busiest emergency departments in the country and operates several major trauma wards which were constructed in the 1980s.

The Holdsworth major trauma ward held 26 beds, two of which were side rooms, and required refurbishment and remodelling to enhance spatial standards, sanitary facilities, bedhead services and other services infrastructure including power and ventilation.

Pick Everard was appointed to provide multi-disciplinary designs for the inclusion of two new side rooms with ensuites, new staff facilities, and compliant clinical spaces such as a dirty utility / clean utility and treatment room. We also designed the installation of new compliant bedhead services.

There were many interested stakeholders and end users who had to be consulted to finalise the brief and design for the refurbishment. Through weekly engagement meetings and workshops, we had to ensure all priorities and services were captured so the end results would be compliant and would meet end users’ requirements.

The proposed location for the new roof-mounted air handling unit and plant had to be carefully coordinated due to the presence of a helipad. We completed various design option studies and a risk analysis to ensure the two did not clash, requiring us to work closely with contractors and suppliers.

Our designs dramatically improve the use of space and patient flows on the ward, delivering increased efficiency. We have ensured all new services are compliant with current standards and have been future proofed to cater for surge capacity, such as during pandemics.

Collaboration within our multi-disciplinary team provided an effective, coordinated approach which has realised the trust’s design aspirations within the practical constraints of an existing building, fixed budget and demanding programme.

During construction we are completing fortnightly site visits and are addressing contractors’ queries through regular meetings. In response to the discovery of unexpected services, we attended site quickly to understand these and then amended designs in response to avoid any programme delay.