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Healthcare Construction – Delivering on the Promise of Offsite

There has been plenty written on the capacity of offsite construction to deliver better productivity and faster project completion. What’s the best way to ensure that reality matches up to the promise?

The theory says that fabricating the structure of the building offsite while the groundworks are being completed can cut weeks or even months from the schedule. To achieve this in practice it helps if the contractor has experience of planning and delivering projects in this non-linear way. And that they have the established supply chain relationships to be confident that every component of the build will be ready exactly when needed.

Any glitches or disconnects in the plan or supply chain will quickly erode the potential gains in productivity and speed. Offsite entails a different way of delivering projects, which has to be learned.

Healthcare construction badly needs the benefits of better speed and productivity. New facilities from hospital extensions to health centres and GP surgeries need to be brought on stream quickly and efficiently so they can start delivering services. Often, there is the added requirement to minimise any disruption to existing services.

Offsite in Action

The completion of the Watford Acute Admissions Unit by Osborne achieved a six month programme saving by using a fully offsite-build for this 120 bed, three storey facility.

For this project, 150 steel-framed modular units were manufactured offsite and delivered complete with partitions, electrics, plumbing, sanitary ware and finishes already in place. Any disruption to patients, clinical services and the local community was significantly reduced.

Time was saved by the parallel completion of groundworks and the structure, and by the fact that fit-out could safely be scheduled to start as soon as the units were installed.

The new facility enables consultant-led rapid diagnosis and treatment in a local setting to improve care and health outcomes for emergency patients. It is a major enhancement to local healthcare provision made possible by advanced offsite methods.

“At a very early stage of the project Osborne added their experience and knowledge of offsite construction solutions to unlock a number of issues, including the need to deliver a significant construction project on a fully operational site within a very short timescale. If they had not been unlocked, the feasibility of the whole scheme could have been jeopardised.” – Sarah Wiles, West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust.

 

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