Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust, part of the Northern Care Alliance NHS Group, has appointed BAM Construction to build a new hospital to support its role as the major trauma centre for Greater Manchester. 

Salford-based BAM’s appointment to the £68million major capital project follows a competitive process under the Procure22 Health Framework.  Planning permission for the six-storey James Potter Building (previously referred to as the Acute Receiving Centre) was granted in December 2019. The new hospital build on the Salford Royal site is also part of the Government’s Health Infrastructure Plan, the biggest hospital building programme in a generation which will deliver 48 hospitals across the country by 2030.

The development is named in honour of the organisation’s recently retired long-standing chairman Jim Potter and will provide the Trust with major trauma and high acuity surgery facilities in a modern, high quality building. 

Once complete, the specialist facility is set to receive 90% of all major trauma patients in Greater Manchester, for example, people who have been involved in a serious road traffic accident or serious fall. It will also be the hub site for high risk general surgery across Bolton, Salford and Wigan. This means that any patients from these areas who require high risk emergency surgical or non-surgical treatment will be brought to Salford for their care. 

BAM is now on Salford Royal’s site carrying out enabling works with a full construction programme start confirmed for 22 February. Day Architectural has worked on the design with BAM and the Trust. The scheme aims to complete in summer 2023. 

NCA Chief Executive Raj Jain said: “This important facility has been many years in the planning with a number of our local, regional and national partners and it’s great to now be just weeks away from the official start date of construction. We are proud to be the major trauma centre for Greater Manchester and this centre and the amazing state of the art facilities and our specialist clinical teams within it will allow us to provide trauma care and services to an additional 400 trauma patients per year and help save more lives.  

“Our partnership with Bolton NHS Foundation Trust and Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust will see us use this facility as the home for a new single-service for high risk emergency general surgery. This new team will strive to provide a general surgery service with the best outcomes in the UK for its patients.” 

“We have worked extensively on the design and programme with the Trust to understand fully what their requirements are, and focus completely on what matters to them – providing a high quality building in which their patients are cared for and their staff can provide that care. That is how buildings should be delivered, with the outcomes the client wants placed at the centre.

“We have an integrated capability to deliver facilities, because apart from constructing buildings, we also design them, develop them and manage facilities inside them. This insight and understanding of the built environment empowers our use of digital tools and construction techniques, and it enhances the sustainability and energy efficiency we can bring to make buildings better to use and more efficient to run.”

Rob Bailey

BAM’s Healthcare Construction Manager

The 9800m2, six-storey centre is set to include a resuscitation area, five emergency theatres, inpatient beds, and diagnostic imaging, and a helipad. 

Cliff Jones Head of Construction Procurement, NHS Estates and Facilities said: “We are delighted this innovative, six-storey, state-of-the art development to provide improved outcomes for patients across Greater Manchester will be delivered via the ProCure22 Framework (P22). A key benefit of the ProCure22 Framework is early engagement between client and contractor who work in collaboration over the life cycle of a project to realise the stakeholder requirements and aspirations. We look forward to the successful delivery of this unique and dynamic facility and the resulting improvements in healthcare delivery for the community that it will serve.”   

Ian Fleming, North West Regional Director for BAM, said the company has adapted its construction operations to ensure the safety of its workforce from the pandemic, and welcomed the new centre.

He said: “These facilities are right on our doorstep so we know very personally just how important they are. There has never been a more important time to help the NHS deliver the facilities it needs to keep people well and to be able to live their lives at a difficult time for us as a country. I’m very proud of our partnership with Salford Royal and the trust they have placed in us.”

BAM’s recent track record in healthcare includes two new Nightingale Hospitals showing the company’s capability of using modular solutions and working in accelerated ways. It is working on several major hospital schemes around the UK, having adapted many schemes to provide additional support to the NHS in fighting the Covid19 pandemic. In Salford and Manchester BAM has delivered scores of buildings for every major client in the public and private sectors, including its most iconic buildings.

I’m very proud of our partnership with Salford Royal and the trust they have placed in us.” Ian Fleming, North West Regional Director