BAM Ireland, Leading Civil Engineering, Building and Property Development Company

Graham-BAM Healthcare Partnership (GBHP) has completed the construction of a new £33m acute mental health inpatient centre at Belfast City Hospital on behalf of the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust.

The purpose-built facility, providing a total of 80 ensuite bedrooms (74 acute mental health en-suite bedrooms and six psychiatric intensive care beds), consists of five separate interconnecting buildings arranged around a cloistered central courtyard, and communal and administration areas.

Peter Reavey, director of GBHP, a joint venture between Graham and BAM Contractors Ltd which delivers strategic healthcare projects on the island of Ireland, said: “We are very proud to add the Acute Mental Health Inpatient (AMH) Centre to our healthcare portfolio as the centre is a modern, state-of-the-art facility that will provide a 21st century care environment for mentally ill patients to recover.

“The build process presented many challenges during the construction of the new AMH Centre which our project team successfully overcame, to provide our client – Belfast Health & Social Care Trust with the finished product to the quality standards they require.”

All aspects of the design have been carefully considered, including the colours, lighting, materials, furniture, fixtures and fittings to ensure that the surrounding environment helps to improve the overall inpatient experience.

Individual rooms also benefit from having their own pitched roofs, creating a sense of home, and the entire building is serviced by a first-floor services zone so that building maintenance can be completely separated from clinical areas.

Construction of the 10,000m2 building began in August 2016.

Karen Brookes, co-director capital planning and re-development, Belfast Health and Social Care Trust, said: “We are delighted that the new Acute Mental Health Inpatient Centre on the Belfast City Hospital site has been handed over to the Trust and is now providing care to our service users. We now have a building that creates a therapeutic environment to enhance and complement the care we provide to people with acute mental health problems.

“Since its appointment in 2016, Graham-BAM has sought to understand the Trust’s requirements and has fully engaged with us to ensure that we were working towards a common goal of minimising risk to our clients. We needed to have confidence in the fabric and quality of finish within the building so that it would not create any additional risk to vulnerable individuals. Throughout construction, the focus remained firmly on meeting the needs of the client.”

GBHP are also in the process of constructing other healthcare projects in the Greater Belfast area which are; the new £57m maternity unit at the Royal Victoria Hospital and the £95m acute services block at the Ulster Hospital for the South Eastern Health & Social Care Trust.

In 2017, GBHP was honoured as the overall winner at the Construction Excellence Awards for the Ulster Hospital’s inpatient ward block which has set the standard for healthcare construction.