ADP completes day surgery centre at Evelina Children’s Hospital

The scheme also helps the hospital treat up to an additional 2,300 children a year.

The Children’s Day Surgery Unit is housed on the ground and first floors of the new treatment centre on the St Thomas’ Hospital campus and provides two new operating theatres and specialist clinic facilities, including the latest child-focused technology and equipment. It also houses an admissions area, first-stage recovery, second-stage recovery and discharge facilities, along with clinical support spaces.

Patient flow is a primary design driver for this new unit so the interior has been mapped as a one-way system: patients preparing for and entering theatre don’t cross over with other patients post-operation, or as they move into recovery and same-day discharge.

In the admissions area, a play area has been designed to entertain young patients and reducing waiting anxiety. On the second floor there are designated spaces for staff rest and relaxation, as well as changing rooms and spaces for meeting and training.

Working with the restrictions of inserting a new build on a very constrained site, the design uses modern methods of construction. The building’s steel frame is clad with a single-aesthetic panellised baguette rainscreen system, providing both solar shading and privacy from neighbouring buildings.

Source:Robert Greshoff

ADP worked closely with young people, NHS staff and other building users to design the building to fit into its heritage context and the adjacent Evelina London Children’s Hospital.

The building form is simple to sit next to its contemporary neighbour of the East Wing, its terracotta façade creating a clean backdrop for a more decorative red-brick South Wing.

In 2020, a team led by Bouygues UK with Hawkins\Brown won a competition for a major new extension to the children’s hospital. The team, headed by the contractor’s development arm, Linkcity, was chosen from an undisclosed shortlist by Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust as preferred development partner for the ambitious ‘triangle site’ development’s shell and core.

The appointment was announced just a week after NBBJ – working with engineers AECOM – was chosen to design and deliver a £50 million fit-out and clinical planning of the new eight-storey wing, which is on a 0.3ha triangular site next to the hospital’s existing Hopkins-designed home.

The Evelina Children’s Hospital sits next to the Houses of Parliament and Lambeth Palace UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The complex, originally constructed in the late 19th century, features several YRM-designed 1960s blocks and a 13-storey tower, which was reclad by Hopkins in 2016.

Source:Gareth Walker

Architect’s view

A key part of the brief was for the building to be separate from the main Evelina London’s Children’s Hospital – both to improve the overall experience of patients and to protect the use of the unit as a day care centre. Our design ensures the building has its own identity with its own front door, appearing standalone but with the added support and reassurance of being physically connected to the main hospital. It is visually coherent through the sensitive use of the terracotta façade and integration of the interior design and artwork to feel very much part of the Evelina London family.
Hannah Brewster, regional healthcare director, ADP Architecture

Client’s view

We are delighted to welcome patients and their families into our new Children’s Day Surgery Unit. We’re proud to provide specialist services for a wide range of health conditions to over 80,000 babies, children and young people each year across our hospital services.

Opening the Children’s Day Treatment Centre is a significant milestone for us in continuing to provide outstanding healthcare for even more children and young people, meeting their needs now and in the future. The look on the children’s faces when they enter the building makes it clear how special the facility is and how different from what many people would expect when entering a ‘hospital’.
James O’Brien, director of operations and improvement, Evelina London Children’s Hospital

Project data

Start on site Autumn 2020
Completion July 2023
Gross internal floor area 3,465m²
Procurement Southern Construction Framework (SCF) NEC 4
Construction cost Undisclosed
Construction cost per m²Undisclosed
Architect ADP Architecture
Executive architect Hannah Brewster
Client Evelina London Children’s Hospital, part of Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust
Structural engineer Mott MacDonald
M&E consultant Mott MacDonald
QS Mace
Art consultant Art in Site
Planning advisor WSP (formally GL Hearn)
NEC site supervisor WSP
BREEAM assessor Mott MacDonald
Fire engineer Mott MacDonald
Acoustic consultant Mott MacDonald
Project manager Mace
Principal designer Currie + Brown
Approved building inspector Cook Brown
Main contractor Morgan Sindall Construction (main works), Wates (enabling works)
CAD software used Revit

Environmental performance data

Information not available at this stage