Merit has launched Merit Health, a new healthcare division
focused on building hospitals faster, more cost-effectively and sustainably
while also deploying enhanced infection control which can make wards COVID-19
safe. Merit Health will use the company’s unique offsite manufacturing
technology to significantly reduce long-established building construction
timelines, without compromising quality. This approach will be critical in
supporting the Government’s pledge to build 40 new hospitals.
The North East-based company has already completed a number
of projects within the health and life sciences sector, including expansion of
the Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult manufacturing centre in Stevenage. In
addition, it is currently working on the ongoing construction of a state-of-the
art healthcare sterilisation facility for Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation
Trust. Merit Health will focus on accelerating projects of this kind to meet
the demand for flexible, safe, and sustainable healthcare sites.
A typical acute facility takes 3-4 years to build, from
inception to handover, whilst Merit’s offsite approach can deliver projects in
half the time. With 75-90% of the building manufactured at the 270,000sq ft
Merit factory near Newcastle, a combination of Merit standard designs, offsite technologies
and shorter supply chains, significantly accelerates the construction process.
Merit’s breadth of technological expertise in cleanroom and high containment
laboratory construction has also been applied to address issues with
circulation of infections in hospitals. This is even more important given the COVID-19
pandemic and the expected emergence of other communicable diseases in the
future.
Tony Wells, Managing Director at Merit, said: “The NHS will
undergo a major upgrade of its estates, including the 40 hospitals programme
and it is great the Government has recognised the benefits of standardisation
and the need to utilise modern methods of construction. With the innovative
methods Merit employs, this can be done quicker, at lower cost, and with higher
standards of infection control and zero carbon emissions.”
“The government is only going to deliver its ambitious building
programme if companies like Merit enter the fold and show how it can be done.
This will also be a critical element towards achieving the NHS’ net Zero Carbon
commitment which was announced last week. Our individual hospital bay
ventilation and extraction technology also means no cross contamination, which
is critical as the NHS continues to deal with COVID-19 as well as future
potential pandemics,”
Building on the company’s long-standing expertise, Merit
Health’s offering also ideally suits the needs of facilities requiring superior
infection control and containment, such as vaccine manufacture and advanced
therapy units.
Source: www.merit.co.uk
