Le CTM UHB ouvre un complexe d'endoscopie dans un délai de six semaines et un bloc opératoire de quatre blocs dans un délai de neuf semaines

Une collaboration très efficace entre Cwm Taf UHB et Vanguard a créé un mini-hôpital pour fournir une capacité alternative en cas d'incident critique, puis une capacité supplémentaire pour réduire les temps d'attente.

“Nine weeks from start to finish, opening up what I can only call a micro version of a hospital...it's absolutely phenomenal.

“The Vanguard is a facility that is similar to our existing theatres. You know, they came equipped. You have that first recovery area. You have the modules for the wards. So, you have a very efficient and effective admission and discharge pathway. It was mirroring our current service. So, it was the obvious solution really.”

Sarah Edwards, responsable de la direction - Anesthésie, soins intensifs, blocs opératoires et orthopédie, Cwm Taf Morgannwg UHB

L-R: Diagnostic Complex, The 'mini-hospital', Theatre Suite

Le besoin:

A critical incident was declared at the Princess of Wales Hospital 10th October 2024. Cwm Taf Morgannwg Health Board was forced to close eight theatres and ten wards, and to relocate the Intensive Care Unit. The closures and the decanting of services to other appropriate spaces meant that, at a time of high pressure on Welsh hospitals to reduce waiting lists, capacity for orthopaedic surgery and endoscopy was particularly under threat.

The Health Board urgently needed to find alternative capacity and avoid falling behind in its efforts to reduce patients' waiting times.

Le plan:

The Health Board, working with Vanguard, assessed the options across its hospital estates. Quickly, they developed a plan to add four surgical theatres, two wards and an endoscopy complex to the capacity at the Royal Glamorgan Hospital. The endoscopy facilities would include two treatment rooms, a five bay ward and endoscope sterilisation.

Installing the facility, called 'the mini-hospital' by CTM staff, within the space between the main hospital building and the road would be a challenge, as would the target of installing and opening the endoscopy facilities within six weeks and the theatre complex within nine.

“The complexity of the site we're trying to fit it into has been a challenge and the team from Vanguard have been really helpful, working with our own estate services to make sure that we can do that. The responsiveness, whenever we've identified a challenge, everyone's been focused on how do we make the solution work and how do we get there. The consistent primary aim for all of us has been to get these facilities mobilised as quickly as possible.”

Gethin Hughes, directeur de l'exploitation, Cwm Taf Morgannwg UHB

La solution:

The endoscopy complex comprises two mobile facilities, each delivered by an HGV, seamlessly joined to provide, under one roof, two treatment rooms, a ward, and scope sterilisation.

To build a fully integrated surgical facility, Vanguard installed four mobile theatres and, using modern methods of construction, built two modular wards and support rooms including reception, consultation rooms, staff welfare rooms and changing rooms.

Le résultat:

The endoscopy complex opened to patients on the 17th February. The first procedures in the surgical facility were on the 4th April. A herculean effort by the health board to assess their needs, identify Vanguard as the supplier that could meet the capacity, speed and budget requirements, and manage the movement of patient care, had resulted in the 'mini-hospital' being in place within six-months of the emergency being declared by the Health Board.

For their part, Vanguard had provided the endoscopy complex within six weeks of starting groundworks, and the four-theatre, two-ward surgical facility within nine.

“It got to the stage where we weren't quite sure who was a Vanguard employee and who was a CTM employee because everyone was working together. People were challenging each other the right way, coming up with suggestions that could have come from either side of the table, and just sort of working our way through as one team rather than us and them. I think that made all the difference, really.”

Dr Dom Hurford, Executive Medical Director at Cwm Taf Morgannwg UHB, Consultant Anaesthetist, Royal Glamorgan Hospital

The endoscopy complex:

L-R: Patient Area, one of the Treatment Rooms, Scope Processing

The surgical facility:

L-R: Six-bed Recovery Area, one of the Surgical Theatres, eight-bed Recovery Area

The results:

“The initial feedback has been brilliant. We've managed it via QR codes, telephone calls, pre- and post-operatively, and the patients have been really complementary. It's a very fresh, new looking unit, as well; I think that definitely shows and yeah, really, really positive.”

Rhys Hopkins, infirmière principale - Théâtres et pré-évaluation, Cwm Taf Morgannwg UHB

“I think they are a fantastic set of units. I visited them previously during my time as a theatre manager. I've been up to Bristol, I've been up to the Cardiff unit when it was in place, and we've always been impressed by them...The theatre teams really like the area. They’re very modern looking. There is a lot more space than you expect when you go into them as well.”

Rhys Hopkins, infirmière principale - Théâtres et pré-évaluation, Cwm Taf Morgannwg UHB

What now?

Having been vital as alternative capacity in enabling Cwm Taf Health Board to replace the capacity lost during the critical incident, as facilities at Princess of Wales Hospital come back into use, the Vanguard facilities at Royal Glamorgan hospital will be used to reduce the waiting lists of Cwm Taf, Cardiff and Vale, and Swansea Bay University Health Boards.

“...our patients within the next month or so will be being treated within a maximum of eight weeks from referral. That's a huge achievement and so important for our local population that we can offer that. We're running these rooms for the next year and we will get the POW rooms back online, probably May, June time. So that means that we will have a bigger step up in our capacity and we'll be able to bring down even further the waiting times for all our patients. So it's of huge, huge importance.”

Gethin Hughes, Chief Operating Officer, Cwm Taf Morgannwg UHB,

speaking as the endoscopy complex opened

Additional information:

Video walk-throughs of the endoscopy complex and the surgical facility, and interviews with key Cwm Taf Morgannwg directors, managers and staff can be found here: lien

The interviews give an insight into the commitment and expertise shown by everybody at the health board in their efforts to ensure patients continued to receive treatment during the refurbishment, following the critical incident. They also evidence how much Health Board colleagues appreciated the highly collaborative relationship with Vanguard, and how this was vital to the success of the project.

The tours of the Endoscopy Complex and the Surgical Facility show how extensive the buildings are, and the superb, high-quality clinical environments they provide.