Integrated Critical Care Unit & 120 bed inpatient ward accommodation, Sunderland Royal Hospital

The Sunderland Royal Hospital ICCU is an internationally recognised exemplar Critical Care Unit. Through our process of Client engagement, our experience of highly complex clinical environments and our detailed understanding of the modular construction processes, we delivered the most advance ICCU facilities in the UK for Sunderland Royal Hospital.

From a Client perspective the ICCU fulfilled their vision and in many instances it exceeded expectations, delivering greater staff and operational efficiencies, greater infection control standards and a vastly improved patient, staff and visitor experience.

Sunderland ICCU benefited from the flexibility of 100% single beds allowing a much higher percentage of patient occupancy leading to increased patient through-put with less down time as maintenance is undertaken on one bed space at a time. Both the fluid disposal unit and the waste pass-through bins are products designed and developed by Andy and Deborah for the Sunderland ICCU. These products were prototyped by the manufacturers and tested by the Trust’s clinical and infection control teams. These innovative design solutions, amongst other design details, provided tangible benefits to clinical outcomes and the operational running of the building.

The net effect of all the design details and features means that patient care is delivered in an incredibly calm and healing environment. One year on from the opening of the new ICCU the unit manager noted that there was anecdotal evidence that patients spent less time in the ICCU due to faster recovery times than in the previous unit; patients needed less sedation due to the calm ambience of the unit, infection rates had reduced, the number of nursing staff was not as great as they had anticipated and that staff were proud to work in such an advance environment.

Project Undertaken by Bridger & Carr whilst at previous practice.