Organisation: Royal Shrewsbury & Telford Hospital Trust
Hospital: Royal Shrewsbury Hospital
Project: Mortuary Upgrade
Value: £1.9 million
Timescale: 11 months
This project was to carry out significant upgrade of existing facility to current standards.
Aspects of concern existed within certain area such as:
The project was initially funded to £300,000.00 based on a previous business case. However after further in depth surveys were carried out it was soon realised that there were more serious issues to be dealt with. Operationally the mortuary and post mortem activity had to be maintained at all times, therefore careful co-ordination had to be installed with the introduction of a phased approach.
Stakeholder engagement was essential on a daily basis in conjunction with analysis of previous 5 year data in order to ascertain trends on storage requirements in relation to capacity.
The existing building was some 35 years old and lacked softness to visitors. Viewing rooms were severely in a dilapidated state. All body fridges had evidence of asbestos within structure and were open to failure at any time. Insufficient isolation storage was evident and the overall flow of operations was open to criticism. Without doubt we had to create a new uplifting facility which would offer the public, the staff and families a respectful place to work and visit which exuded compassion and careful consideration in all instances.
A bereavement garden was introduced for families of the bereaved to offer a comforting seating area. This was supported by generous donations from contractors on the project and the added water feature garden which was donated by Alterego.
The full project escalated to a cost of £1.9 million and received awards from local council offices.
