Long-term relationship with Bedford Hospital

Healthcare projects are an important aspect of SJD’s work, helping to make much-needed improvements to hospital services for local communities across the areas we serve.

We’ve returned to Bedford Hospital several times over the years to renew out-of-date electrical installations to make the buildings safe, efficient and compliant, and to provide the electrical infrastructure for new state-of-the-art medical equipment to be installed. However, hospitals are sensitive environments that require many services to remain open to the public 24 hours a day, seven days a week, therefore access can be very limited and the ability to mobilise at short notice is a critical requirement for clients such as Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust.

Brian Randall is Bedford Hospital’s engineering officer and says that not all contractors are able to work in this flexible way: “Our hospital now offers out-patient appointments in the evenings and at weekends and many of our wards are operational all the time so there are restricted times that we are able to give contractors access to working areas.”

Brian says flexibility is needed from a contractor: “SJD has been very good, they keep to deadlines and are able to come back when access allows. They also have a thorough knowledge of what’s required for delicate medical equipment to be installed which is a big plus for an NHS Trust.

“SJD is very professional, they’ve worked in wards, and theatres which are very sensitive areas of the hospital.”

Victoria Ward

SJD was asked to renew the main electrical infrastructure at one of Bedford Hospital’s acute medicine wards, Victoria Ward, to upgrade the switch gear.  The project required a high level of coordination due to the complex nature of the equipment being supplied by the main distribution panel.

Working closely with the estates team, SJD undertook detailed intrusive surveys and produced a schedule of works with precise timings as many of the power supplies fed live wards and equipment.

With buildings of this age, there is always the possibility of encountering asbestos and other risks along the critical path, so the team made plans to deal with any unexpected challenges. The programme also allowed for early, late and weekend working, if required.

The team installed a new panel board and temporarily supplied it by reconfiguring an existing outgoing circuit, using that circuit as a back-fed supply rather than as a load, as a temporary measure, to ensure both areas remained live at the same time. This allowed for minimum distribution of all the circuits as they were isolated and then re-routed into the adjacent room and reenergised, enabling the timescale to be adhered to on each phase.

As each phase was completed, SJD systematically installed new distribution boards and wired new cabling to an existing board, one circuit at a time, disconnecting and jointing within a bespoke enclosure, extending the circuits to the new location. Throughout the works the team ensured compliance was upheld for certification. 

Brian explains: “For the work on Victoria Ward, SJD was given the basic design specification from the hospital’s consultant but tightened up the scheme and found a solution to maintaining power supplies. They created a temporary feed using disused equipment from another building to enable migrations to new supplies to occur. This minimised power shutdowns, when work couldn’t be scheduled out of hours.”

When working in older buildings, SJD has the capability to source replacement parts for equipment that is often old or obsolete, like at Victoria Ward where the team safely removed switch gear while minimising disruption to services.  Where possible the team adapted older equipment, such as existing SEA cables, mineral insulated cable (PYRO) but renewed the connection boxes as part of the upgrade.

Imaging

Imaging is a very sensitive area of the hospital and SJD used its knowledge and experience to upgrade the MRI services by creating the supply to a mobile MRI Unit adjacent to the department.

The team then returned to the hospital for the upgrade of X Ray and CT scanner equipment, a project SJD undertook for Parias Construction and Interiors. This specialist work required SJD to provide detailed schematics and install the supplies to the scanner manufacturers’ precise specifications.  

Catering

The catering department uses trolleys to keep food warm before it’s taken to patients on wards. SJD was asked to find a solution to enable the department to control the length of time the trolleys were switched on, so they could be active only during food preparation periods.

Working in a hot and busy setting, the team ensured existing outlets were maintained whilst installing new more robust 16A commando sockets tough enough for the working environment. Once all sockets were installed the team then replaced the 13A plug tops so the trolleys could be connected to the new outlets. When this work was complete, the team could then strip out the original installations.

Following this work, the team needed to identify multiple distribution boards from a variety of manufacturers to install new cabling and upgrade sockets on live wards throughout the hospital, for the food warmers to be connected to. 

Other projects for the hospital include various replacements of distribution boards, upgrades and small works such as fault finding and remedial work to ensure the hospital’s installations were up to date.