Wexford General Hospital, Ireland

The need 

In March 2023, a fire broke out in the hospital’s plant room. The fire spread quickly, causing extensive damage to large parts of the hospital, including a partial roof collapse. Clinical spaces and medical equipment were badly affected by both fire and water damage. Thankfully, no-one was injured. All but 29 of the 200 patients on site at the time were evacuated or relocated to other facilities, half the hospital’s beds were closed. 

Endoscopy procedures were one of the services badly impacted by the fire. The Operations Manager of Clinical Services stressed the need to get essential endoscopy services back up and running on the site as quickly as possible. 

The plan

The hospital team worked with the partnership of Q-bital and Accuscience on the design of a standalone mobile endoscopy suite to be located on-site so that patients could attend appointments without the need to visit the main hospital. The Healthcare Space would remain on-site for a period of 12 months to provide a safe and comfortable environment for both patients and staff. 

The solution

The 18-metre mobile endoscopy suite was designed to allow for a complete patient pathway from admission to discharge. It featured HEPA-filtered environmental air and integral medical gas, vacuum and scavenging systems, as well as decontamination equipment and endoscope storage. The Healthcare Space was on-site by mid-May and was clinically validated, ready to receive patients 4 weeks later. 

The outcome

The mobile endoscopy facility allowed the hospital to resume their endoscopy services as quickly as possible after the devastation of the fire. Patients were able to attend appointments for essential diagnostic procedure while the hospital’s repair work was ongoing.

Our partnership with Accuscience

This was a very important project. Our partnership with Accuscience enable us to design and deliver a fully equipped endoscopy facility at pace.