Currie & Brown acting as NEC supervisor at Musgrove Park

18 October 2021

Somerset NHS Foundation Trust has appointed Currie & Brown as NEC supervisor on two new developments at Musgrove Park Hospital.

Originally built during the Second World War, Musgrove Park Hospital was used as a temporary casualty evacuation hospital during the D-Day landings, with other buildings added later in the 1940s.

Currie & Brown is acting as NEC supervisor and trust cost advisor on the construction of an £87 million state-of-the-art, three-storey, 11,454m² surgical centre and associated enabling works that form part of Musgrove 2030, an ambitious programme to transform the hospital’s facilities and ensure people are cared for in the right place to meet their health needs.

Expected to be completed in 2024, the building will provide eight new operating theatres and accommodation; surgical admission lounges adjacent to the theatres; 22 critical-care beds; and a brand-new endoscopy suite.

A separate £11.5 million development to move the hospital’s acute assessment unit closer to the hospital’s emergency department, allowing for faster access to consultants and surgeons and quicker assessments for patients who may require emergency surgery, is also underway. Work to construct a new therapies building has also started.

The hospital is one of the 40 new hospitals that the government is backing to deliver by 2030. A new maternity and children’s building and further development of the hospital’s cancer and emergency services also form part of the Musgrove 2030 programme.

Procured via the NHS P22 framework, Kier Construction has been appointed as the main contractor. BDP is acting as lead architect, civil and structural engineer on the project with WSP as mechanical and engineering consultant. Hulley and Kirkwood has been employed to provide the mechanical and engineering NEC supervisory services.

Dr Daniel Meron, chief medical officer at Somerset NHS Foundation Trust, said: “The quality of care provided to our patients is something we are very proud of. We want to support our excellent clinical and non-clinical teams to further improve the outstanding care they provide to our patients and we are very excited at the prospect of being able to care for and treat our patients in state-of-the-art operating theatres and critical-care facilities.”

Paul Chamings, director in Currie & Brown’s Exeter office, added: “We are delighted to be able to support Somerset NHS Foundation Trust as NEC supervisor for the upgrade of its hospital buildings, allowing them to centralise and streamline services across the site.”