The £9.4 million National Garden Scheme (NGS) Macmillan Unit at Chesterfield Royal Hospital in Derbyshire, UK, has officially been opened by HRH The Duke of Gloucester. Mott MacDonald delivered multidisciplinary engineering services on the project, which is one of the first centres in the UK to provide truly holistic cancer care and support in one unit.
The two-storey, purpose-built NGS Macmillan Unit has been providing treatment to patients since the summer of 2017 and combines a variety of cancer treatment and support services under one roof in a flexible, low maintenance and sustainable building. Services that have been built into the unit include haematology, oncology, acute oncology and chemotherapy, as well as palliative and supportive care. It comprises 21 treatment chairs, two treatment beds and three treatment rooms for chemotherapy patients, tripling the previous capacity for treatment. It also houses a Macmillan Information and Support Centre to help patients and their families through diagnosis and treatment.
Mott MacDonald provided mechanical, electrical, civil and structural engineering services on the project, plus offered advice on highways design and BREEAM sustainability assessments. The consultancy also helped Vinci Construction, the project contractor, in developing a materials management plan that allowed the relocation of site won material to other areas in the hospital’s estate. This helped reduce programme and cost pressures normally associated with treatment and disposal, while contributing to the unit’s overall BREEAM Very Good rating.
Ian Hurst, Mott MacDonald’s project director, said: “From the outset of this project we collaborated closely with the architect, clinical and estates teams, Macmillan and patients to ensure their needs were placed at the core of our designs. In doing so, we helped deliver an uplifting and therapeutic centre with an efficient, flexible layout which enhances the delivery of services and considers the patient journey, clinical timetabling and room occupancy.”