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Healthcare

Princess Alexandra Hospital

Since 2020, Actiform has worked with Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust to deliver 10 schemes across the hospital estate — from modular ward extensions and clinical assessment units to staff wellbeing facilities and a lead-lined CT scanner module. What started as a single procurement became a sustained, trusted partnership that has fundamentally changed the way the Trust delivers its clinical estate.

Expertise
  • Long-term NHS estate partnership and accelerated works delivery
  • Modular and traditional construction across clinical, operational and welfare spaces
  • Live hospital site logistics across multiple concurrent and sequential schemes
Deliverables
  • 10 schemes completed across the PAH estate from October 2020
  • Modular and non-modular builds including wards, assessment units, scanner facilities, staff spaces and training centre
  • Full planning, Building Control, design and HTM/HBN compliance managed throughout

Princess Alexandra Hospital was facing unprecedented pressure long before the pandemic — patient volumes were rising, existing wards were not meeting modern medical grade standards, and the new hospital still being designed was years away from readiness. Covid-19 made an already urgent situation critical. The Trust needed a delivery partner who could move quickly, adapt constantly, and deliver consistently across a wide range of scheme types on a live operational site.

Challenge

Solution

  1. 01/

    Challenge

    The Trust needed multiple scheme types delivered rapidly across a live hospital — from clinical assessment units and CT scanner modules to ward refurbishments, staff facilities, and a training centre. A traditional procurement approach, with a different contractor for each, would be too slow and too fragmented.

    Solution

    Actiform’s accelerated works processes and breadth of capability — spanning modular build, traditional construction, M&E, design and planning — meant the Trust could rely on a single, trusted partner across all scheme types. From the first project in October 2020, the relationship grew rapidly: what was procured as one scheme became ten, as the Trust’s confidence in Actiform’s delivery grew with each handover.

  2. 02/

    Challenge

    Each scheme on a live hospital site presents its own logistics, access, and stakeholder challenges — and with multiple projects running in close sequence, the margin for disruption to clinical operations was essentially zero.

    Solution

    Actiform’s site management approach — built on detailed access plans, logistics programmes, and comprehensive stakeholder engagement at the start of every scheme — ensured that staff, patients, and visitors maintained safe access to all hospital facilities throughout. The same disciplined approach was applied consistently across all ten schemes, creating a working rhythm the Trust could rely on.

  3. 03/

    Challenge

    The Covid-19 pandemic didn’t pause the construction programme — it accelerated it. The hospital urgently needed additional capacity, and Actiform had to deliver under conditions no programme had planned for, including their own factory shutdown from a Covid outbreak.

    Solution

    Actiform adapted and delivered. The Adult Assessment Unit’s first floor was handed over ahead of schedule to accept Covid patients at a point of critical national need. The Frailty Assessment Unit, Medical Records Store, CT Scanner Module and additional ward refurbishments followed — each one addressing a real and immediate pressure on the Trust’s ability to care for patients.

Our Approach

Actiform’s relationship with Princess Alexandra Hospital is a model for what long-term NHS estate partnership looks like in practice. Each project built on the last — deepening mutual understanding, shortening decision cycles, and enabling Actiform to anticipate the Trust’s needs rather than simply respond to briefs. The Pasqualino Risi quote reflects a relationship that goes well beyond contractor and client.

The ten schemes delivered span the full range of Actiform’s capability: two-storey modular extensions, specialist lead-lined clinical modules, ward refurbishments, staff welfare buildings, and a SIP technology training facility constructed beneath an existing ward. Taken together, they represent a comprehensive, practical transformation of a hospital that couldn’t wait for its new building.

The Results

£14mTotal Value

10Schemes delivered

14Months to complete

Working closely with our estates and clinical leads, Actiform supported the design and build of a new modular emergency care unit at Princess Alexandra Hospital, Harlow. The team helped us move away from traditional, siloed structures towards a flexible, technology-enabled space, working hand in hand with our design team to deliver a future-focused build, fully integrated into hospital operations.

Pasqualino Risi

Associate director of Estates and Facilities, Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust