MATERIAL REUSE | NHS CASE STUDY RESTORED TO HEALTH Building services materials from Nightingale hospitals have been reused in a Dorset diagnostic centre, as part of the NHSs drive to cut embodied carbon. Molly Tooher-Rudd looks at BDPs reuse strategy A s part of its net zero carbon strategy, the NHS is striving to minimise the embodied energy in its building programme and reuse materials wherever possible. The strategy has been applied to a new one-stop NHS diagnostic centre in Poole, which has been built in Beales department store. Design consultancy BDP, and construction and facilities management partner CFES, worked with University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust to build the new centre for breast screening and diagnostics on what was the top floor of the shop. It is the first of 40 community NHS diagnostic centres opening in England that will provide earlier diagnostics, and more convenient and accessible treatment, in local communities. To minimise waste and embodied carbon, the project team reused as much of the shops materials and plant as possible, and specified recycled equipment from other projects notably, the decommissioned Nightingale hospitals, delivered at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. Elements recycled from the Nightingale hospitals included mixer taps, around 200 light fittings, and bed head and dado trunking in the consulting rooms. In addition, they also reused 1,000m of plumbing pipework, plus cable containment, 12,000m of cables, data and socket outlets, and light switches. Plasterboard, doors, and ironmongery were among the other elements salvaged and stored, helping to reduce the project cost and speed up the programme delivery period. During construction on site, the project team carefully reviewed the installation to ensure it was up to standard and compliant. This project is the first of its kind in the country, says Paul Johnson, architect director at BDP. Not only does it support a circular economy by reusing materials from the emergency Covid-19 hospitals in an existing building, but it is also built on the same collaborative and sustainable methods of design and construction. To ensure minimal disruption to the existing Beales store on the ground floor, the project team avoided drilling through the slab and work was done out of hours. Similar concerns over drilling resulted in the use of efficiently placed, mechanically pumped drainage for the wash hand basins. Compliance with Health Technical Memoranda (HTM) was also essential. The design team had to highlight derogations from HTMs/Health Building Notes to the Trust and agree on the design methodology before it was developed and finalised. For example, point-of-use water heaters were used on the wash hand basins in clinical areas to ensure standards were met. The existing boilers and air handling units were unsuitable for the 52 August 2022 www.cibsejournal.com Items from decommissioned Nightingale hospitals were used to build the centre proposed layout of the Health Village, so it was proposed to cut into the existing ductwork in the riser and cap it off within the floor. New ductwork was then introduced under the ceiling, which because of concerns about asbestos mitigated the need to disturb the existing ceiling. The project team carefully proposed the installation of ductmounted diffusers along these ductwork runs, to disperse the air into consulting rooms that had no ceilings. The existing extract system consisting of two large extract grilles either end of the floor plate was reused, and the existing smoke extract was kept in place. For clinical reasons, the breast-screening and ophthalmology rooms required ceilings, so were unable to be cooled from the modified ventilation system. Instead, To ensure minimal disruption, the team avoided drilling through the slab and work was done out of hours The aim of the diagnostic centre is to make appointments more accessible and convenient for people