James Paget Hospital builds a 28-bed ward in a factory, to halve build time

The BBC reported in December 2022 that a new 28-bed ward for the James Paget University Hospital in Gorleston, Norfolk, was being built in a factory, and that the government said it could be a blueprint for NHS buildings. Health Secretary Stephen Barclay said there was an urgent need to move from bespoke to standardised designs to keep costs down. The West Suffolk Hospital also received funding for modular units.

The 'concept ward' was designed by staff and clinicians with contractor Health Spaces. About 20 rooms have their own bathrooms, following patient feedback, and a four-bed bay staggers bed positions to improve infection control and privacy. It would let the trust learn about patient outcomes, infection control and staff impact.

Health Spaces said building the modules in a factory means groundwork, drainage and foundations can be done at the same time, saving about 50% of build time: a two-year project could take 12 months. The 41 modules, averaging 24.5 tonnes, were to be placed by a 300-tonne mobile crane.

Build the ward as factory modules while groundwork happens on site, cutting build time by about half.

Factory production runs alongside site work instead of after it.

A standardised design avoids bespoke cost for each hospital.

The government said nine of the last ten hospitals ran over budget and late.

Delay is costly: steel prices rose £250m on the delayed Harlow hospital project.

Moving construction off-site turns a sequential job into a parallel one, and a standard design makes the saving repeatable.

The ward was expected to be finished by April 2023 at a cost of £15m and to be kept after the new main hospital is built. The James Paget was among 40 new English hospitals promised by 2030, with no start date given. Critics had worried about building something not made to last; the trust and contractor said modern modular units should last 40 to 50 years. Savings were claims by the contractor and had not yet been demonstrated.