Greater Manchester Major Trauma Hospital, UK

NEC has been used to deliver a new state-of-the-art major trauma hospital in Manchester, UK. Client Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust procured the new Greater Manchester Major Trauma Hospital through the NEC-based ProCure22 framework under an NEC3 Engineering and Construction Contract (ECC) Option C (target contract with activity schedule).

The £48 million building work was let in November 2020 to NEC Users’ Group gold member BAM Construction, a principal supply chain partner on the ProCure 22 framework, which is run by and for the NHS. DAY Project Management was the NEC project manager with architect DAY Architectural, structural engineer Mott MacDonald, services engineers DSSR and BAM Se, fire consultant OFR and ProCure 22 supervisor Ross Quality. 

The contract involved designing and constructing an eight-storey, 10,000 m² reinforced concrete, rain-screen-clad building on piled foundations in a severely constrained site within the grounds of Salford Royal Hospital. Its primary purpose is to provide urgent treatment for people who have suffered major trauma, such as from a serious traffic accident or fall.

The BREEAM ‘excellent’ building has a roof-mounted helicopter landing pad which provides direct lift access to five emergency operating theatres, 12 emergency resuscitation bays, seven inpatient beds and a suite of MRI, CT and X-ray scanners with a view to reducing time to treatment. Work started on site in February 2021, the hospital was handed over in August 2023 and it opens to patients and service users in February 2024.

Collaboration and early warnings

Barry Cleminson, director of DAY Project Management, says the NEC requirement for the parties to act in a ‘spirit of mutual trust and co-operation’ was fully embraced by the project team. ‘The NEC contract ensured collaborative working throughout the project. This included the need to communicate clearly any issues regarding cost and programme via early warnings and/or notification of compensation events’.

He says the NEC early warning system worked particularly well on the project. ‘It provided a clear picture to the project team of all foreseeable issues and how best to action them. Early warnings with a notable impact warranted their own risk-reduction meeting to work out how best to mitigate the risk to the project, and these were undertaken with the entire project team. Any changes to the works information were then quickly and fairly agreed with the contractor through the NEC compensation event process.’ 

Cleminson says communication was also assured through use of the Sypro contract management system a wide range of regular meetings. ‘These included monthly progress meetings, fortnightly design team meetings, weekly site walkovers, and monthly commercial and risk reviews. The NEC project manager also held quick “coffee catch ups” two to three times a week with project team members to discuss any issues, concerns or suggestions for improving the programme or quality before rolling these out to the wider project team.’

Benefits of using NEC

• NEC requirement on the parties to act in a ‘spirit of mutual trust and co-operation’ helped to encourage collaborative working throughout the project.
• NEC early warning process meant that issues were identified and mitigated through risk-reduction meetings. 
• NEC compensation events process ensured that changes to the works information were quickly and fairly agreed with the contractor.