Construction work gets underway on major project that will help to transform Musgrove Park Hospital

The new acute assessment hub, designed by architects BDP and being constructed by Kier, recently received full planning permission.A major milestone has been reached in a key project to transform and modernise critical care and assessment buildings and services at Musgrove Park Hospital in Taunton.Main construction works on a new acute assessment hub that will include a new three-storey building for the therapies department have now begun.Somerset NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the hospital, along with community and mental health services in Somerset, is one of 21 organisations expected to benefit from the Department of Health and Social Care’s hospital building programme, with potential funding of £450m.The next steps of the Trust’s ambitious plan – called Musgrove 2030 – will include a new maternity and children’s building and further development of its cancer and emergency services. This is in addition to the plans for a new surgical centre, acute assessment hub, therapies department and maternity refurbishments at the hospital.Designed by global architecture and engineering practice BDP‘s South West team and being delivered by contractor Kier, the acute assessment hub is a game changer for the hospital. It will include an admission hub for those patients who need to be admitted to hospital for additional care and a unit for those patients who require emergency treatment that can be delivered on the same day, without the need to be admitted to hospital overnight. The current surgical admissions unit is located in World War II ‘Nightingale’ style ward accommodation that is unsuitable for modern standards of care and is some distance from the surgical operating theatres. In the future, it will be included in the acute assessment hub, adjacent to the emergency department.This comes after the Trust secured full planning permission from the district council for both the acute assessment hub and surgical centre, which has also been designed by BDP, as well as NHS Improvement’s approval of the full business case for the acute assessment hub.The acute assessment centre is due to be complete in early 2022.BDP’s South West studio includes a specialist healthcare team who are responsible for the multi award-winning Southmead Hospital and Bristol’s Nightingale Hospital at the UWE Bristol Exhibition and Conference Centre. Indeed, nationally, BDP developed designs for most of the Nightingale temporary hospitals in England.