The teams working on the new hospital project for Montserrat are considering an earlier construction start date. A recent presentation at the Music for Montserrat event identified November 2023 as the expected date for construction to begin. However, after a recent visit from the architectural design firm, this date is expected to shift.
Over the last two weeks, the Government of Montserrat welcomed Article 25 – Humanitarian Architecture back to Montserrat for an intense programme of design review and development sessions with key stakeholders, as part of their contract to finalise the new national hospital’s detailed design.
The government has agreed to the construction of a new 24-bed hospital with a design to accommodate ‘daily peak’ demand, on the current Glendon Hospital site.
Following a full tender process, Article 25 Architecture were appointed to undertake the detailed design and associated services for the new national hospital, and to this end a contract was signed with GOM July 2022.
The recent successful island visit, facilitated by the Montserrat Ministry of Health and Social Services and Programme Management Office, focussed on resolving outstanding design issues and provided an opportunity for the full team of design and engineering disciplines (architectural, structural, MEP, etc) to engage with users and to refine their various components of design. The team now returns to the UK to create the detailed drawings and specifications which will form the basis of the construction contract.
The visit also culminated in a presentation to Montserrat’s Cabinet, where the refined designs, schedule and costings were shared.
Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Health and Social Services (MoHSS), Mrs. Camille Thomas-Gerald stated, “We are pleased that Article 25 has successfully engaged with the various stakeholders including personnel from the Ministry of Health, the PMO, various other Government Departments and external partners such as MUL. The resulting hospital floor plan designs and programme development details give us the confidence that our requirements will be translated into reality, allowing a modern hospital that is fit for purpose for facilitating quality health service transformation in Montserrat, whilst meeting international standards.”
Head of PMO, Martin Parlett, said, “The visit achieved its objective to resolve almost all outstanding design questions and to ensure that targeted user feedback, to support this refinement, was heard and captured. The visit also responded to the desire from all for acceleration of the Project. The New National Hospital Project will be accelerating to achieve the soonest possible start date on site. This will include the temporary use of the Margetson Memorial Home to house decanted hospital services during the construction stage.
“Construction of the new facility at the rear of the existing St John’s hospital site will now be completed in a simpler, single phase. The visit also helped to refine the strategy for demolition, decanting and construction logic, such that we expect to be initiating the associated enabling works on the ground very soon.”
Hannes De Bruin, Project Manager, added, “It has been really rewarding to see the enthusiasm of all our personnel involved in these sessions, in raising and sharing service requirements to facilitate detailed design, to ensure that the new hospital represents the best building format to support our health services going forward. This involves personnel from MoHSS, Public Works, Physical Planning and Emergency Services. We look forward to continued close working as we make progress on our key milestones over the next few months.”
Further details on the design and accelerated schedule will be shared, in due course.
The New National Hospital Project is funded by investment from the Capital Investment Programme for Resilient Economic Growth (CIPREG). The recent visit of the Article 25 team coincided with that of a team of auditors from the Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO) which funds CIPREG.
The implementing agencies from the Government of Montserrat are the Ministry of Health and Social Services (MoHSS) and the Ministry of Finance and Economic Management, Project Management Office.
