Castle Building Services (Castle) has been awarded a contract for a new £9.8 million state-of-the-art healthcare facility in York.

Working on behalf of principal contractor, Kier Construction, Castle has been appointed to provide a full range of mechanical, electrical and plumbing services on a new seven-suite endoscopy facility for York Teaching Hospital NHS Trust Foundation under the NHS P21Framework.

The facility will also include recovery areas, interview-discharge rooms, offices and a plant room as well as ancillary spaces.

The two storey endoscopy facility is currently being constructed on top of an existing physiotherapy unit and adjacent to the neurosciences and renal departments. For that reason, it is a logistically challenging scheme to deliver.

While working on the project, Castle will face several challenges, not least those associated with working on a live hospital site. To overcome this, the contractor will work closely with the Trust, its stakeholders and Kier Construction's site team to ensure minimum disruption to patients, clinical staff and visitors.

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Further to the general building services, the unit requires specialised services to support its clinical function including uninterruptible power supplies and isolated power supplies as well as medical gas installations.

Castle is currently working at pre-construction stage and will commence on site in July. The schedule of works is expected to last approximately 40 weeks, with the contractor expected to handover in the second quarter of 2019.

Speaking about this latest contract win, Castle's commercial director, Andrew Dawson said: "I'm delighted to announce the news of our appointment to such a prestigious scheme for York Hospital. Our previous experience of working in a clinical environment will stand us in good stead on this project.

"We will be working closely with Kier's team and other project partners to ensure we achieve all our key milestones on the project to bring it in on time and budget, ready to serve the people of York and the surrounding areas who need the vital services provided by the Endoscopy Unit."

With demand for endoscopy services set to rise on the back of the expansion of the NHS Bowel screening programme, the new unit will give York Hospital the extra capacity to meet that demand.  It will also enhance the design of the department and provide patients with an improved experience when attending appointments.

Kier Construction's Senior Project Manager, Andrew Clarkson, added: "We're looking forward to delivering this scheme and we'll be working closely with the Trust to carry out these works whilst ensuring the hospital can continue to operate effectively on a daily basis.

"This will ensure that everyone involved is working towards the same goals to bring the scheme to a successful conclusion."

Patrick Crowley, Chief Executive, York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust said: "This is the biggest capital investment for many years and will allow the Trust to provide clinical services to a growing number of patients needing endoscopy.

"This is an exciting development for the Trust and it will transform our service into a centre of excellence for endoscopy, providing enhanced high quality care to our patients."

(MH/CM)