Scheme first of its kind for northern offsite specialist
Merit has been appointed to deliver a £25m operating theatre block for a West Midlands hospital trust.
The Northumberland-based begins piling and foundations work this month for the University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Trust Foundation's new state-of-the-art Elective Hub.
Using 4D BIM modelling and a product-based approach will allow Merit's team to deliver offsite and on-site works in parallel, theoretically speeding up the build, with a completion date of May 2024 targeted.
When complete, the two-storey building will contain six high-quality operating theatres – three ultra-clean and three robotic – as well as supporting services to increase capacity for elective procedures at Solihull Hospital.
More than fourth fifths of the new hub will be manufactured offsite at Merit's Cramlington facility, with the scheme using modern methods of construction for the shell and core and a digitally manufactured offsite fit-out.
>> Offsite firm Merit plans major expansion of Northumberland factory
Tony Wells, chief executive of Merit, said: "This is the first NHS theatre we will be delivering and is another milestone in our own progress and development which has seen Merit disrupt the traditional construction approach.
"We have re-invented our entire company around a proprietary integrated product platform so that we can design and manufacture technically complex facilities in our Cramlington-based factories to deliver repeatable successful project outcomes, from faster timescales to cost certainty and sustainability."
