Celebrating 45 years of Rotherham Hospital

Rotherham Hospital first opened its doors to patients in 1978, and in the 45 years since hospital staff have saved countless lives.

We’re proud to support Rotherham Hospital with their estates improvements, completing 20 projects in the last 3 years. Better facilities create a first class working environment for staff, an outstanding experience for patients, and allow the hospital to reduce their carbon footprint and energy costs.

To celebrate the anniversary, we’re looking back on some of our favourite projects – the developments that have really made a difference to the lives of patients, and given medical staff the best tools to do their job.

Urgent & Emergency Care Centre

It goes without saying that improvement works on an emergency care centre need to allow patient access at all times. Our team constructed a new entrance, ambulance drop off points and treatment rooms, and individual cubicles for patient privacy in resus, without disrupting the flow of this busy hospital department.  The £1m improvements, which took place during the covid pandemic, made the traumatic experience of being in the emergency care department less stressful for patients, and helped boost infection control measures.

Keppel Ward

Rotherham Hospital’s Keppel Ward cares for stroke patients, and was in need of refurbishment and updating to be able to continue providing high quality patient care. Due to start in 2021, the works ended up being pushed back almost a year due to the pressures that the pandemic was putting on the hospital. The delayed start meant that 34 weeks of work had to be packed into just 22 weeks – a difficult task, especially as working in a live hospital environment already causes its own challenges. But through the hard work of our site team, who reworked the schedule, we managed to complete the project three days ahead of the deadline.

The ward medical staff now have a specialist facility to treat stroke patients, meaning those who have suffered from this devastating condition can have the best possible outcome after their recovery.

Window of opportunity

A hospital’s main focus is on delivering the best care for its patients, but they also need to consider how what they do affects the environment. That’s why we were happy to get stuck into a project replacing around 400 windows at the hospital for brand new ones which reduced heat loss from the rooms. We also updated the cavity walls, making the building fabric more energy efficient too. This improved the hospital’s Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating, allowing the hospital to save energy, money, and reduce its carbon footprint. Sounds like a win to us!

It’s the little things

Sometimes, it’s the little things that make all the difference. If you’re at the hospital, having somewhere quiet to sit and think can give you time and space to calm down and unwind. Together with our supply chain partners and the Rotherham Hospital Community Charity, we created a wellbeing garden and woodland walk where staff, patients and visitors could take a break from the hectic pace of hospital life. We also created an outside seating area as we upgraded the hospital’s discharge lounge, giving patients a chance to enjoy some fresh air as they wait to leave the hospital.

Parents who have a child in hospital often say it’s one of the most stressful times in their lives. We worked with the hospital charity to create a new children’s play area on the roof of the hospital, just outside the children’s ward. We gave it a pirate theme, with a pirate ship, telescope, and even a shark! Parents can bring their child outside to play, and they can both have a few minutes of fun and feeling like they’re back in normal life again.

Looking to the future

As well as looking back, we’re also looking to our future partnerships with Rotherham Hospital. Projects coming up include upgrades to the hospital’s ventilation and electrical systems, and more exciting schemes which will further reinforce the great work that’s been going on at the hospital over the last few years.

Here’s to the next 45 years, and many more after that!