Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust

The need 

The hospital was about to enter a period of refurbishment and it was essential that interventional radiology procedures continued during this time. Additional capacity was needed for a minimum of 19 months, not only for the radiology procedures but also to reduce waiting lists in neurosurgery. 

The plan

The plan was to deliver and install an HTM-compliant hybrid operating theatre facility in December 2021. The hospital would continue to use their current facilities until the build was completed. We were able to provide the additional operating theatre in just 12 weeks from contract to handover, providing the Trust with significant cost and efficiency savings.

The solution

The design of the modular theatre was future-proofed, built to ISO5 standards with 25 air changes per hour, with all medical gas connections and a scavenging system included as standard. The theatre was configured to include the necessary shielding and operative booth. The provision of the imaging equipment was included in the contract, with Vanguard working in partnership with Philips.

We also provided the CDM and project management, working with the Trust’s team to develop, design, commission, and handover the facility, as well as building a full connecting corridor interface. 

The hospital site was enclosed on three sides by busy clinical areas, including a COVID-19 ward, which required special consideration such as blue route planning, maintaining connectivity to existing clinical areas, multi-use site health and safety requirements, COVID safe working practices and working within noise sensitive areas.  

The outcome

The facility was designed to deliver complex interventional radiology treatments and neurological procedures, including spinal surgery. The hospital staff’s high satisfaction with both the build quality and project delivery has resulted in an order to build a second modular operating theatre on site in 2023. 

Our partnership with Philips

We collaborated with Philips to provide an HTM-compliant hybrid operating theatre facility equipped with a Philips FlexMove imaging system. Together we ensured that the theatre was future-proofed with an ultra-clean ventilation system and x-ray shielding in place. We designed the ceiling with a sub-structure for reinforcement so the imaging equipment could be mounted and reinforced the floor to install a specialist fixed operating table.