A new two-ward building has been officially opened by Parliamentary Under Secretary of State Lord Markham CBE at Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust’s (MCHFT) Leighton Hospital, in Crewe.
Built over two floors, the wards feature a mixture of single and multi-bed bays and a specialist physiotherapy area on the ground floor for occupational therapy and post-surgery recovery, along with a patient day room.
Lord Markham, who is responsible for the Government’s programme of building new hospitals and upgrading existing ones, visited Leighton Hospital to open the ward on Tuesday, 15 August and see the site first-hand.
The wards project was delivered by specialist offsite healthcare construction firm, Darwin Group, which works in partnership with the NHS to create outstanding healthcare facilities built using innovative offsite construction methods at its own UK-based production facility.
As part of the visit, Lord Markham heard how the new wards would not only increase overall capacity at the hospital, but also provide decant accommodation which would allow MCHFT to undertake essential refurbishment and stabilisation works to existing wards.
Leighton Hospital was built in the 1970s using reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) and is one of a number of hospitals recently identified by the Government as needing to be rebuilt.
The new ward building’s exterior has been designed to complement the surrounding site. Sustainability is also a key feature, with high performing materials, air source heat pumps and solar panels on the roof giving it an energy efficiency ‘A’ rating.
