Following a successful handover from healthcare construction partner Darwin Group®, James Paget University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust opened the doors to its new Orthopaedic Outpatient Centre on Thursday 22nd May 2025.
The healthcare estates specialist, Darwin Group, delivered and installed an On-Demand® Healthcare Facility for an Orthopaedic Outpatient Centre.
The Trust needed a same-day emergency care (SDEC) unit to bolster its urgent and emergency care offering. To provide the best patient flow through the current hospital building, the optimal location for the SDEC was next to the hospital’s emergency department (ED). The space neighbouring the ED was being used to house the Trust’s orthopaedic outpatient services.
The Trust decided to move its existing orthopaedic services to a new On-Demand facility, which neighbours its Orthopaedic Centre, a permanent building that Darwin Group also delivered and installed earlier this year. The co-location of the two buildings demonstrates how a Darwin Group On-Demand building can be successfully integrated and operate within an NHS Trust’s existing permanent estate.
The Trust opted for an On-Demand solution from Darwin Group as it wanted the flexibility and speed of a hireable facility. Instead of investing in another permanent construction leading to future estate issues, the On-Demand facility was delivered at pace.
The completed building took 16 working weeks to deliver. Eight weeks were spent at a Darwin Group site in York, where the building was assembled and first and second fix works were undertaken. A further eight-week onsite period followed, during which the modules were delivered, installed, and made fully watertight at James Paget Hospital.
The new facility is made up of 16 modules, which are a newly developed range of healthcare-specific units that afford a 2.7m high ceiling, delivering a building with a 618 m2 gross internal floor area (GIFA).
Following building installation, final onsite finishes were applied, including oak-finished doors and frames, floor-to-ceiling fire-rated windows, floor finishes with acoustic underlay, trunking, lighting, and suspended ceiling tiles.
The building was installed on a reduced-level dig with concrete pad foundations. Further groundworks included adapting and linking services and drainage within the existing hospital infrastructure and providing hard and soft landscaping alongside access ramps.
The building meets all the Trust’s required Fire Safety and Infection Control regulations with enhanced windows, panelling, partition walls and doors. A special ventilation extract system was installed in the plaster bay area to remove residual Entonox gas.
The single-storey facility includes: nine consultation and examination rooms, an Orthotics treatment room, three plaster bays, a resus bay with WC facilities, including accessible and ambulatory WCs. Further support spaces include a reception and waiting area, staff base, rest area, lockers, an interview room, offices, clean and dirty utilities, cleaners’ room, storage areas (including for Orthotics, Plaster, Linen, Crutches/Splints), and an IT Hub.
The doors opened for the first time on Thursday 22nd May with the first patients attending appointments the next day.
Nick Dawe, managing director for Darwin Group, said: “We are extremely honoured to have supported the Trust in ensuring patients receive the highest quality care by co-locating its orthopaedic facilities. In doing so, we have provided a solution allowing the current space inside the hospital to be refurbished into an SDEC unit.
“The Trust’s approach of seamlessly integrating both permanent and On-Demand solutions from Darwin Group demonstrates healthcare estate flexibility and a commitment to future resilience. On-Demand healthcare facilities are solutions fit for modern medicine, provide relief to changing needs, and support future adaptability as requirements evolve.”
Shane Gordon, chief executive officer for James Paget University Hospital, added: “I’m delighted to be here today at the opening of this phenomenal new facility serving the patients at the James Paget Hospital and our communities. It provides much-needed capacity for orthopaedic outpatient activity and is an excellent clinical environment for the hundreds of patients that will be seen here each week.
“I have experience with these rapid construction projects in the NHS, and I’m delighted with the incredible pace at which this has been delivered, starting in February and opening tomorrow (23rd May 2025).”
Charlotte Dillaway, chief operating officer for James Paget University Hospital, also added: “The completion of the new centre means that, for the first time, the James Paget has brand new orthopaedic facilities, including a hi-tech operating theatres building and a modern ward with en-suite single rooms, which are all located next to each other, for the benefit of our patients.
“Its creation also frees up space in the main hospital building, which we will now use to develop our ‘same day emergency care’ services, helping us see patients arriving at our Emergency Department more quickly and preventing unnecessary admissions, reducing pressure on our bed capacity.”
Richard Varvel, head of capital at James Paget University Hospital, also said: “We are extremely proud we’ve delivered this in record time. It was a 16-week construction period with a rapid turnaround on the design.
“We’ve hired this building, and it’s a different concept from the permanent building we already have next door. There are a few subtle differences – the permanent building has a concrete floor, for instance, whereas this one doesn’t. But other than that, you really wouldn’t notice the difference.
“We came up with this concept to create space to move the fractures department into. We’ve done that in record time, so we can now start developing a same-day emergency care unit next door to our A&E department in time for winter pressures.”
Jo Segasby, group delivery officer and deputy chief executive of the newly formed Norfolk and Waveney University Hospitals Group, said: “I think patients will have a fabulous experience when they come into this new building. I think we will see the benefits to patients in two ways. Orthopaedic patients will go into a purpose-built environment, which also releases space in the current hospital, for some of our emergency care service developments. By winter, we’ll have an assigned emergency care unit, which means patients will be able to be assessed and then hopefully discharged from the hospital without requiring hospital admission.
“Thinking about the new hospital going forward, having something adaptable is really helpful for us because we will be redesigning the site. We know we’ve got the permanent orthopaedic elective centre next door. So, having this co-located here in the meantime is beneficial. But when we then look at the whole site development, we will look at how we provide outpatient facilities differently, perhaps in a different environment or the same place.”
Finally, Caroline Crane, the matron for James Paget University Hospital’s Orthopaedic Outpatient Centre, summarised: “The new building is going to have huge benefits for our workforce. There is a designated staff wellbeing room. There is a lot of natural light and more space. There is ventilation and air conditioning, and it’s just a really nice, modern facility for them to be able to work in.
“The comparison to the current fracture clinic, which we’re in, is huge. It’s old and outdated. It’s ultimately not fit for purpose anymore. There’s not much privacy and dignity, whereas this will allow for that.
“Whilst it has been highlighted as a temporary building, this is a new home for us. When you come in here, you do not get the feeling that it is a temporary building. I’m very confident that the patients will walk in and they will see that there are no signs or any evidence of this being a temporary building.”
To find out more about Darwin Group and our On-Demand products, email OnDemand@darwingroup.co.uk and follow us on social media.
