Construction of the new multi-million pound St Benedict’s Hospice is now officially underway after a traditional cutting of the sod ceremony carried out by Sue Winfield, NHS South of Tyne and Wear Primary Care Trust (PCT) Vice Chair and Derek Moss, Chair of St Benedict’s Hospice Board of Trustees.

NHS South of Tyne and Wear has worked closely with partner organisations to develop the plans for the new facility and Sunderland Teaching Primary Care Trust has committed over £12 million to deliver the new build.

Dr Henry Choi of Sunderland’s Clinical Commissioning Group, which will take over full commissioning responsibilities in April 2013, added: “The project has been taken forward through a partnership approach with representatives from Sunderland Local Authority, General Practitioners and the Hospice Board of Trustees working closely with service users and their families.”

It will accommodate all of the specialist services currently housed within the existing hospice, including 14 single occupancy inpatient beds, day care, outpatient services, as well as a number of community nursing teams and an education centre.

NHS South of Tyne and Wear’s Strategic Lead for Planned Care, Sheila Alexander, said: “The facility will be the first purpose built hospice for the residents of Sunderland and will provide a modern state of the art facility for one of the most vulnerable patient groups.

“It will continue to provide high quality palliative care for the residents of Sunderland within a first class facility that has been developed especially to meet the needs of patients, now and into the future.”

The Hospice, which will move from its current location on Newcastle Road to the new purpose built Ryhope facility, is due for completion in April next year.

I hope that there will be other positive changes during the coming months to look forward to as we continue our plans to ensure the future of P+HS Architects and, as always, we will keep you informed.

The success and recognition for our achievements at Houghton le Spring continues.

The building has now been recognised as the Best Healthcare Building in the UK by  BREEAM in a recent awards ceremony held at Ecobuild at Excel in London.

Joe Biggs collected the award with Steve Naylor, our client and Scott Corey from Willmott Dixon the constructors. The judges made the following comments:

The Houghton Primary Care Centre is the first healthcare building in the UK to achieve a BREEAM Outstanding rating, going beyond the Department of Health’s requirements to achieve a BREEAM Excellent rating for new buildings.

The Sunderland Teaching Primary Care Trust was the main driver for integrating sustainability from the project’s inception and to show clear commitment to achieving BREEAM Outstanding certification.  Ultimately this along with the early involvement of a BREEAM assessor and careful consideration of a number of sites to select the most appropriate were key factors in achieving BREEAM Outstanding without incurring significant costs.

The development is the last of four Primary Care Centres to be part of the Sunderland Teaching Primary Care Trust’s strategy to develop Primary Care Centres that extend the range of services available to patients in locally accessible settings and modernise and integrate the premises from which primary, GP, community and other services are provided. This is clearly demonstrated by the new building’s location within close proximity to the town centre and adjacent to the town’s existing leisure centre, providing a clear message between exercise and a healthy lifestyle.

The Primary Care Centre is laid out around a central two storey atrium which contains the main circulation space. To the left of the atrium is the sports and leisure centre and to the right the main reception for the Primary Care Centre. Within the central atrium visitors also have access to a cafe and waiting hub incorporating a self help area. A 24 bed rehabilitation ward is located on the first floor and other services such as GP consulting and diagnostics are spread throughout the building.

Located next to the Radiotherapy building and replacing an existing car park, plans have been submitted for a new and dedicated Cystic Fibrosis Unit at Nottingham City Hospital. The compact two storey building will form a physical link with the existing hospital, providing the following accommodation:

G.F
- 7no. Outpatient exam / consultant rooms
- Treatment rooms
- Staff open plan office
- Physiotherapy gym and associated facilities
- Large double height space upon entrance with views out onto a private screened garden space

F.F
- 16no. Inpatient bedrooms with ensuites
- Dedicated patient kitchen and dining facilities
- Clinical / Ancillary accommodation

The unit provides a unique opportunity to deliver a facility which strongly reflects a contemporary interior and innovative approach to the treatment of Cystic Fibrosis.

Having recieved Planning permission early this year, we are currently working towards financial close and preparing for a start on site within the next two months.The new medical centre will provide excellent health services at a local level to the community, and is to serve as a Community Health Centre for both South Kirkby & South Elmsall.The project is being developed by two local GP practices and Leeds Community Ventures for Wakefield PCT to improve the delivery of primary health and social care services within the community.Facilities include a pharmacy, retail unit, flexible community space, local PCT at ground floor and two GP practices at first floor.

Pictured here: St Benedict's Hospice 3-D visual of courtyard

We are delighted to announce that planning permission has been granted for the relocation of St Benedict’s Hospice from its current location in Newcastle Road, Sunderland to a new purpose-built facility in Ryhope to the south of the city.

The new building will accommodate specialist services currently housed within the existing hospice, including 14 single occupancy inpatient beds, day care, outpatient services, as well as a number of community nursing teams and an education centre.

Joe Biggs of P+HS Architects commented on the remarkable progress of the scheme:

“Following a successful design competition in August last year we were appointed to develop the design proposals for this very special project. It took less than four months to go from inception through to the submission of a very detailed planning application. Progress like this is only possible when you’re able to develop a very close relationship with the client. We’re very privileged to have the opportunity to work with the extremely dedicated teams from St Benedict’s and the PCT. All of the intensive hard work of the entire team can now be seen in what will inevitably be a remarkable building.”

Work is expected to start on site later this month with anticipated completion in April 2013.

Phase 1 of new mental health facilities has been completed in Barrow-in-Furness, creating single en-suite bedrooms for 20 Patients. The development  includes a variety of lounge, dining, gym and OT spaces, access to safe and secure courtyard gardens for Patients, and vastly improved facilities for both visitors and staff . Phase 2 will be complete in early summer 2012 and will provide 15 beds for people with dementia.

The Cumbria Partnership also made a little film…http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBsPBKqhWJ0&feature=youtu.be

Adrian Evans MCIAT receives the 2011 Open Award for Technical Excellence in Architectural Technology. Pictured L-R: Kevin McParland of McParland Finn; Adrian Evans of P+HS Architects; Colin Orr, President of CIAT

We are delighted to be able to announce that Adrian Evans, one of our senior Technologists and Associate of P+HS Architects has been awarded the CIAT 2011 Open Award for Technical Excellence in Architectural Technology for his work at Blaydon Leisure and Primary Care Centre for Gateshead PCT.

This prestigious annual award from the Chartered Institute of Architectural Technologists recognises technical achievement and has been running since 1994. It attracts international interest with previous winners including Benoy, Ferrari World, Abu Dhabi, and Nicholas Grimshaw and Partners, The Eden Project, Cornwall.

Commenting on his award, Adrian said:

‘I am delighted and immensely proud to receive the CIAT Open Award for Technical Excellence in Architectural Technology. The award recognizes the hard work, dedication and commitment of both the design and construction teams, who were instrumental in the successful delivery of this prestigious project, which has been extremely well received by the clients, building users and visitors.’

We climbed through the mist and rain for several hours, over Cold Moor and to the top of Cringle End not far from the half way destination. Here we saw the horrifying figure appearing through the mist; dirty muddy and drenched to the skin.. luckily it was only Ray. After regrouping we started the final descent to the half way point with the anticipation of hot bacon and sausage sandwiches awaiting us.

Refuelled, strengthened with reinforcements and with the weak November sun fighting the mist and rain, we set off on the return journey, mostly FLAT! I believe Geraldine was told!? We pushed on through boggy mud and puddles, relieved that the skies were now clearing and the rain had stopped.

Regrouped at the top of a steep slippery slope we set off on the final leg through Broughton Plantation where large uprooted trees ripped from the ground lined the winding path. We finally all reached the car park and civilization; wet and muddy but with Patrice and the Great North Air Ambulance Service at the forefront of our minds..

Thanks again Cath Oldcorn and Chris Burke for organising the walk and I hope we can continue to raise more money for GNAAS. All late sponsorship will be accepted.

Later in the month I will be auctioning off a framed photograph from the walk.

Waiting area at Houghton Primary Care Centre

Yesterday I had the honour of being part of the team to receive the award from the BRE for the, now confirmed, Outstanding award under BREEAM Healthcare for Houghton Primary Care Centre. The Award was made to Steve Naylor from Sunderland PCT at the IHEEM conference in Manchester.
Being the first healthcare building in England to be awarded such an exemplary award it was with extreme pride that I was invited to speak briefly about the meaning of the award for P+HS. Pride, but also guilt, as I’m very aware that all of the hard work was done over two and a half years by Adrian Evans, Eamon Shutt and the entire technical team. Congratulations to you all, this is a great achievement for both you and the practice.

Developed for Sunderland Teaching Primary Care Trust as part of their
strategy to improve facilities to support healthy communities, Houghton is an exemplar in sustainable design and provides high quality and accessible health, social care, sports and leisure facilities from one integrated site.

P+HS has worked closely with the PCT for over eight years and is responsible for the architectural design of several innovative and sustainable primary health care facilities across the North East. The client’s commitment and the very early introduction of a BREEAM Assessor added clear focus to the Houghton project in terms of sustainability targets and the development was also able to benefit from a highly experienced project team and lessons learned on earlier schemes.

Sustainable elements include thermal wall facilitating innovative low energy natural ventilation strategy, ground source heat pumps, water attenuation, wind turbine, underfloor heating, rain water reclamation, green roof, solar thermal panels and photovoltaic panels.

The team responsible for the successful delivery of Houghton le Spring Primary Care Centre are:

Client: Sunderland Teaching Primary Care Trust
Architect: P+HS Architects
Contractor: Willmott Dixon
Natural Ventilation Engineers: Breathing Buildings
Structural Engineer: Cundall
M&E Engineers: Mott MacDonald
BREEAM Assessor: WD Re-Thinking

Selected as a case study by BRE, you can read more about this project here

The GNAAS operates across a huge 8000 square miles from the Scottish Borders down to North Yorkshire and from the east coast across to the west coast. Their helicopters can be anywhere in the region within 15 minutes with trauma doctors and paramedics on board.

Last week our colleague was thankfully airlifted to hospital by one of the GNAAS helicopters. This event has brought the sterling work of the GNAAS to our focus and we thought therefore we could show our appreciation of their work by adopting the Air Ambulance as our charity for this year.

Did you Know?

• GNAAS is not recognised as one of the emergency services
• The service does not receive any Government or National Lottery funding and therefore relies on the support of the public to continue its work.
• It costs £2500 per mission, regardless of whether the patient needs airlifting

Over the next twelve months we will be running a series of fundraising events to raise funds for the Air Ambulance service in our region, supporting the crucial work that they do, saving lives every single day.

As it costs £2500 every time the helicopter is sent we thought that we should try and make that our fundraising target. Yesterday Kay opened our P+HS bake off challenge with a kitchen full of cupcakes with added bling, flapjacks and rocky road. She well and truly threw down the gauntlet for the remaining 13 bakers who have kindly volunteered to roll up their sleeves and get their pinafores at the ready! Thanks Kay! As well as the baking we’ll be adding more events into the (baking) mix to help raise the money; for one thing £2500 is an awful lot of cake.

So watch this space for more up and coming events and send all your fundraising ideas to either myself, Diana or Cath Oldcorn.

Delicious cakes launch the bake-off challenge

So, with the promise of a few minutes fame and the impending arrival of a real live film crew, our technical staff booked their hair appointments and applied for their Equity cards. The cameras rolled and the results can now be seen here:

P+HS make appearances in both the ‘The Professional and Occupational Performance (POP) Record’ and ‘Why join the Chartered Institute of Architectural Technologists (CIAT)?’ Be patient our guys don’t all make an appearance in the first frame, but they’re worth waiting for..

Ireland Wood Surgery has been shortlisted for this year’s RIBA Northern Network Awards. The scheme will be up against 37 other shortlisted entries, with the awards due to be presented on Friday 4th November. Fingers are firmly crossed.

Ireland Wood Surgery is a contemporary, new medical centre in Cookridge, Leeds. The scheme includes a GP practice, pharmacy and optician, providing a new focal point for health services in the area. The design uses steel frame construction to provide a spacious, double height waiting area and reception, linking into a fully flexible clinical area. All public space is provided at ground floor, where a bright colour scheme ensures clear navigation around the double corridor arrangement. This sustainable development includes built-in expansion to the first floor, and has been awarded the first BREEAM Excellent for primary care in Leeds.