Sterile Services Department and Office Block
The Sterile Services Department (SSD) replaces an existing off-site facility owned by West Suffolk Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (WSHFT) which has become out-dated and nearing the end of its useful life. The new SSD is located on the main hospital site, bringing services closer to the major units they provide for. The ground floor of the new building provides the facility to decontaminate reusable medical instruments via a process of cleaning, disinfection and sterilisation. Above this are two floors of offices which will allow administrative departments from the main hospital to be relocated, freeing up space for new wards and additional patient facilities.
The footprint follows the most efficient circulation for the SSD process. The office floor above were then designed around this footprint, with open plan being mostly adopted around a core of kitchenette and WC / Changing Rooms. Some private offices are provided with the flexibility of being used as glass fronted breakout rooms, combined with more formal meetings room suites and less formal “discussion pods”.
The building was designed within the West Suffolk Hospital Framework using BIM (Building Information Modelling) ready software, allowing a 3D model of proposals to be developed by Architectural, Structural and Mechanical teams simultaneously. The virtual model also allowed us to provide augmented reality 3D visualisations for the client which was used to imagine the first and second floor office layouts.
