1The Challenge
An NHS acute hospital trust needed to refurbish a 30-bed medical ward while maintaining it as a live clinical environment — relocating all 30 patients to alternate accommodation would have created an unacceptable waiting list pressure. The refurbishment contractor needed a construction containment system that met NHS HTM 01-01 infection control requirements, was fire-rated, and could be installed and demounted cleanly in a live ward environment without disturbing clinical operations.
2Our Solution
Mercia Industrial supplied and installed a complete hospital-grade construction containment system using fire-retardant, wipeable PVC curtain panels on a ceiling-mounted steel track system running the full length of the ward. The installation was carried out at night to minimise disruption to clinical operations. The system created a clean, safe construction zone that met the Trust's infection prevention and control team's requirements, and was provided with full documentation for inclusion in the Trust's project file including fire certification and material safety data sheets.
3The Outcome
The ward refurbishment was completed on programme with no patient transfers required. The infection prevention team carried out weekly audits of the containment system throughout the 12-week refurbishment programme and recorded zero containment failures. The containment system was demounted in a single day at the end of the project with no damage to the ward fabric, and all materials were removed from site for responsible disposal.
“Healthcare construction containment is a specialist area and Mercia clearly had the experience to do it properly. Their documentation was exactly what our Infection Prevention team needed, and the installation and removal were both carried out professionally with minimal disruption to the ward.”
— Estates Project Manager, NHS Acute Hospital Trust, Sheffield
- Client
- NHS Sheffield
- Location
- Sheffield, South Yorkshire
- Industry
- NHS Healthcare
- Product
- RapidFireWall