New appeal for WA's Peel Health Campus

Peel Health Campus in Mandurah, Western Australia, is a general hospital located one hour south of Perth. It is the major healthcare provider for the Peel region — one of the fastest-growing areas in Australia.

Peel Health Campus provides a wide range of healthcare services, with a 24-hour emergency care centre and comprehensive medical, surgical, maternity and rehabilitation services. The hospital accommodates a specialist medical centre as well as pharmacy and diagnostic services.

With health care becoming even more crucial in this challenging and rapidly evolving era, Hames Sharley was commissioned as the architect for a major refurbishment at the campus.

Devlyn Construction was selected to conduct the building works on the basis of its extensive experience in medical construction and reputation for delivering a high level of quality and meticulous attention to detail.

The project involved staged redevelopment works to the emergency department and short-stay admission ward, as well as the server room. These works were carried out while both areas were kept operational. As access was limited, a scaffold was set up over the top of the building, with a hoist for material to minimise disruption to the hospital’s operations.

Each area was sectioned off to create a construction zone, and the relevant areas were fully demolished internally and rebuilt to current healthcare design standards. Specifically, the work comprised a full upgrade of the mechanical, electrical, comms and nurse call, and a new consultation room, waiting room and reception area.

The patient triage reception uses colour for clear wayfinding.

The emergency department was altered and extended to increase the size of the ambulance patient waiting, triage and fast-track treatment areas. Alterations were also made to the Rivers Suite to increase the number of short-stay beds.

In addition to erecting a hoist and scaffold to gain access over the top of the building, another main challenge faced by the Devlyn team was, understandably, the impact of COVID-19 — not only on the site but also transporting and moving material. There were also the customary challenges of working in a ‘live’ hospital: keeping noise to a minimum and incorporating effective dust-control measures.

Treatment bays can be seen from the staff station, providing a visual connection to patients, but sound separation allows patient and staff comfort.

Devlyn’s main site compound and materials lay-down area were at the rear of the campus, 80 metres from the actual work zone, which meant that even the most mundane task involved careful planning to ensure the campus suffered no delays or negative impact.

Bearing in mind the limited access to building areas, all materials including cumbersome items such as concrete and bricks had to be delivered in small quantities and moved throughout the facility by hand, with no mess or impact to staff or patient movements. To achieve this, Devlyn engaged more labourers than usual to guarantee that materials were delivered without delay and areas were cleaned regularly.

In the end, even though all the work was subject to a tight schedule, each separable portion was handed over on time, with a satisfactory result for all those involved and no major accidents or incidents.

The emergency and paediatric waiting areas have clear zones for waiting and circulation.

Devlyn worked closely with Ramsay Health staff to ensure the impact of construction work on a day-to-day basis was kept to an absolute minimum, with all access and egress areas kept clean at all times, construction noise carefully monitored and kept to a minimum, and stakeholders fully informed of progress and works to avoid any unforeseen impact.

Top image caption: Paediatric waiting room playroom with integrated artwork. All images courtesy of Devlyn Construction and Johnathan Trusk.