Canberra Private Hospital

Swanbury Penglase were engaged in November 2018 by Nexus Hospitals to undertake renovations and expansion of their existing Canberra Private Hospital in Building 2 of the Equinox Specialist Centre in the ACT.

The Hospital fully occupied two floors of the building including:

• Level 3 – Main public entry and clinical floor including three operating theatres, recovery and CSSD
• Level 2 – Ward rooms (twenty-six in total) and associated support facilities

The Hospital specialises in Orthopaedic surgery and therefore has a high theatre/ward bed ratio (in comparison to other Nexus facilities where the surgery mix varies).

The brief from Nexus was to provide an additional operating theatre to expand their Orthopaedic surgical capacity and provide greater flexibility to offer alternative surgery types. In addition, to support additional surgical capacity additional ward beds were also a fundamental requirement of the brief.

To facilitate the increased size and capacity, Nexus took over the lease of level 1 of the building to expand the hospital.

The design response was to:

• Construct a new Main Entry, Reception and administration area on level 1, shifting this function from level 3 and freeing up space on that level.
• Construct an additional twelve Ward Rooms with associated support facilities on level 1.
• Construct a fourth Operating Theatre on level 3 which required the complete reconstruction of one of the existing Operating Theatres.
• Reconfigure the support facilities on level 3 to increase capacity of Pre-operative Bays, Recovery Bays and Sterile Storage.

A key requirement for Nexus Hospitals was that the existing hospital facility continue to operate whilst construction works were undertaken. The initial construction stages involved the fit out of the expansion space on level 1 which allowed areas on level 3 to be progressively decanted and construction works to occur on the existing clinical floor.

The fitout of the new level 1 area provided the opportunity to introduce a warmer, more tactile, modern interior design and material palette to the new main public entrance to the hospital. Elements of this new materiality have been carried up to the Level 3 to non-clinical areas and have been integrated with the existing fitout in clinical areas creating a modern refresh to the existing facility on Level 3.

Construction is currently underway with the first stage completed. Construction is due for completion in May 2021.