TURNER DIAGNOSTIC CENTRE (MMDIC)
We were delighted to be awarded the Colchester Hospital contract, constructing a new Turner Diagnostic Centre (MMDIC) for Alliance Medical, following a 2 stage tender procedure.
This scheme for the construction of a two-storey Multi Modal Diagnostic Centre provided the client with their first facility that combined all modalities of MRI, PET-CT, Gamma and SPECT under one roof. The building is a steel frame structure with pre-cast concrete upper floors. Service installations also included a standby generator for the provision of scanning and medical gases.
A detailed Project Management Plan and design of site logistics was required due to proximity to the Accident and Emergency Department. A Stakeholder Engagement Meeting was held with the Trust to ensure that safe systems of work were put in place. A detailed vehicle tracking exercise was undertaken to ensure vehicle movements could be achieved. Constant contact was required during crane operations to facilitate a 10-minute warning to allow the crane operations to cease so that the air ambulance helicopter could land. Detailed enabling investigations were also undertaken to establish locations of services and rerouting of the same to de-risk the site prior to the main contract commencing.
Value Management was provided through a collaborative approach to agreement of the contract sum. We identified value engineering savings of £1m. This included M&E changes but also changes to elevational treatment and landscaping which we negotiated with the Planning Authority on the client’s behalf to provide certainty of cost and programme. The complex installation required detailed coordination with scanners, structure and building fabric. To aid this and the fit-out of the building BIM was used for both layouts and individual rooms in 3-D. This enabled co-ordination of all elements and facilitated detailed end user workshops before going to site, which ensured certainty of installation, cost and programme. In addition to the scanners, other specialist interfaces were the rerouting of medical gas supplies from an existing Trust building, without disruption to hospital operations.
The project required close working with GE on the MRI install and Siemens for the Gamma, PETCT and SPECT together with radiation protection advisers. We accommodated a late change (20 weeks prior to completion) of an alternative MRI supplier which caused structural and service installation changes including re-routing and additional works. We collaboratively worked with Wardray on the design of the RF cage and Bower Fuller on the design of the M&E install to accommodate the client change and the building was still delivered on the agreed completion date.
Benefits of our approach: Through the provision of a dedicated commissioning manager, the early involvement of all specialists and the detailed planning of all aspects of the commissioning and close out process, we achieved a Zero defects handover and surpassed all required clinical and operational safety test results on what was an extremely complex and technical specialist medical facility. Despite the late changes (20 weeks prior to completion) to the MRI supplier the project was delivered on the agreed completion date.
