Some projects require military style planning to ensure that work can be undertaken in short periods of access time, and this is absolutely the case at Milton Keynes Hospital where Ashe has been working on a £3.4m Salix funded project for Milton Keynes University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (MKUH).

In order to meet efficiency targets the hospital building, which was constructed in 1984, needed to replace its single glazed windows with thermally efficient double glazing. Many of the windows are on occupied hospital wards each with eight beds.

Without the capacity to decant an entire ward to another space, the project has been undertaken in live wards with only the patients from the two beds nearest the windows being relocated during the works.

Window of opportunity

Contracts manager, Steve Cockram, explains the challenges on a project of this type: “We only got one day to cordon off each area to the safety and hygiene standards required by the hospital which takes around two hours. We then removed the existing windows, installed the new windows, clearing any debris and cleansing the area to high clinical hygiene standards ready for patients to move back into the bay by the end of the day.”

A major challenge was upgrading the windows in the hospital’s shop. The shelving and refrigerators were all positioned against the windows which had to be moved from the working area, old windows removed, new windows installed, then all returned to their original positions, in one working day, whilst the shop remained open to the public.

Steve continues: “Despite the best programming, it was inevitable that some wards would not be available as planned due to emergencies, therefore it was decided that all of the new windows would be ordered and stored within easy access of the site so that we could pivot quickly to work in another part of the building should access be denied.”

This plan B approach made Ashe so efficient that the team actually shaved four weeks off the original schedule which was due to complete in mid-October. In total 456 windows, 22 doors and a curtain wall have been installed.

Precision timing

Extensive mechanical and electrical works have also been carried out providing new energy efficient air handling units (AHU) to ensure clean ventilation. The AHUs serve four of the main operating theatres at the hospital, so timescales were crucial in achieving theatre re-commissioning.

The trust required three months’ notice for the start of the works to allow for closures to be communicated to staff, and operations to be scheduled appropriately. Each theatre was shut down for three weeks at a time, with the handover of each AHU and theatre allowing access into another theatre. Ashe adhered to these strict timescales and managed to complete the AHU works to operating theatres also ahead of programme.

Ashe has also installed the services in preparation for the upgrade of the steam generation for the hospital’s autoclave sterilisation system. The works will enable the hospital to transition from gas-powered to an electrically-heated system, to make it more energy efficient.

Careful co-ordination with the hospital was required so that one of the four main entrances could be closed for two days to allow use of a crane to access the plant room. Signage and barriers also had to be of a high standard.

The project forms part of the hospital’s Greener Future plans having secured £4.8m of funding from the Government’s Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme which aims to reduce emissions from public sector buildings by 75%.

This is one of several healthcare projects Ashe is currently undertaking which includes creating a new community diagnostic centre in the heart of the city, for MKUH.

This project was procured under the Pagabo Medium Works Framework.