Case Studies

HSE PPP Community Nursing

TEAM

Health and Safety Management Team

Sector

Healthcare

Related Services

PSDP, Health & Safety Technical Advisor

People To Contact

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Overview of service

The objective of the Public Private Partnership with the HSE and its private partners is to deliver Community Nursing Units across 11 sites in larger rural towns across Ireland. The units, for elderly patients, are to appear residential in nature and less like a hospital environment.

ORS was appointed as PSDP and Health & Safety Technical Advisor for the initial stages of the design development, through stages 1, 2a, 2b, 2c, 3 and 4 (construction). At stage 4, ORS has the sole role of Technical Advisor for the projects until completion.

The approximate value of the project is €150 million. Several of the sites were split from the main package to be tendered separately, with the remaining seven sites staying together in the larger bundle. The HSE’s private partners and preferred tenderers were Equisisk, a conglomerate of Sisk, Equitix and Sensori.

Along with ongoing meetings between the HSA TA team and Equisisk, the ORS team has facilitated several workshops to finalise the technical details before construction.

Project challenges

Design challenges across multiple sites

During the project, the originally preferred tenderer was removed from the process and replaced with Equisisk. This caused some challenges for the ORS team. Careful communication and repeating the design process was conducted successfully with the new tenderer.

The design team had to consider health and safety and design standards from HIQA and input from infection control that informed the final design decisions.

The sites varied in their environment and layout, which presented challenges to the process. Some sites had existing asbestos that needed to be removed and overhead power cables that needed to be diverted before construction could commence. These issues were resolved by enabling works packages. The process of mitigating risks at the design stage and managing 11 sites is a primary focus for the design team.