A six-bed discharge lounge and five-bed palliative care ward have been created in a new facility at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) in King’s Lynn by MTX Contracts Ltd using modern methods of construction (MMC).

The two-storey facility is a stand-alone building which has been designed to be reused when the planned new hospital is built, with bespoke ground-floor and first-floor corridors linking back to the main building and hospital ‘street’.

The new discharge lounge was commissioned to support the on-going reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) failsafe programme of works within the QEH site.

It provides care for patients who are ready to leave hospital as they wait to go home, or receive further care in the community.

The existing discharge lounge will be demolished as part of the RAAC eradication works.

The five-bed palliative care unit on the first floor of the new building provides patients with a dignified and comfortable place to receive end-of-life care.

And it has been specially designed to provide a calming and peaceful space away from busy hospital wards.

Each of the rooms is ensuite and sympathetically equipped so family members can be comfortable as they spend precious time with their loved ones.

The two-storey building is located in a courtyard at the rear of the hospital site, which allows easier access for patients and staff and will take high volumes of site traffic away from the busy hospital ‘front door’ and emergency department areas of the site.

It will also enhance privacy for patients being discharged.

The design includes a new bed lift for easy patient access to the ground-floor discharge area.

Internal fitout of the new building included HTM-compliant air handling systems along with power, medical gases, and other bedside services.

The contract was awarded by the Queen Elizabeth Hospital King’s Lynn NHS Foundation Trust and MTX worked closely with the trust’s multi-disciplinary design and construction consultancy partner, exi, which is managing the RAAC failsafe programme.

MTX and its MMC methodology was chosen following the company’s successful delivery of the new endoscopy building on the QEH site in 2023.

MTX managing director, David Hartley, explained: “The new building was fabricated offsite while complex enabling works and site preparation was undertaken prior to the factory-manufactured structural units arriving on site.

“The project required re-routing of existing services and building within the constraints of a tight courtyard site surrounded by live hospital wards and the Macmillan Centre.

“This meant craning in modules was the best solution because it reduced overall site/construction time and fit within the tight RAAC programme, while minimising disruption to the existing site operation and services.

“Using MMC principles enables us to maximise offsite manufacturing opportunities and the use of precisely-engineered structural modules to build faster, safer, greener, and more cost effectively.”

Simon Illingworth, the trust’s chief operating officer, added: “The discharge lounge will have a positive impact on flow through our hospital.

“Every patient who is ready to be discharged that we can get home or into community has a positive impact on other patients waiting for treatment and frees up beds on our wards for people who need acute medical care.”