Focus on health and safety: NG Bailey hospitals scheme

NG Bailey is currently working on one of the largest and most prestigious projects in the company's history - a flagship PFI scheme on Merseyside to deliver two state-of-the-art hospitals for the St Helens and Knowsley Hospital Trust. The company is working under a strategic partnership agreement with Taylor Woodrow, which is undertaking the design and construction of these new facilities as part of the NewHospitals consortium.

One of the largest healthcare PFI projects ever to be delivered and the largest single investment in healthcare in Merseyside since the NHS was formed, the £350m St Helens and Knowsley Hospital Trust project, brings together Taylor Woodrow and three of NG Bailey's specialist divisions, Bailey Building Services, Bailey Teswaine and Bailey Off-site. The five-year construction programme will deliver a 25,000m2 diagnostic treatment centre at St Helens during 2008 and second, a complete rebuild of Whiston Hospital (75,000m2 new build and 12,000m2 refurbishment), which will be a 963-bed acute centre. At six storeys high, Whiston will be among the largest hospitals in the UK.

With such a challenging construction project comes the ultimate question of safety on site. A high health and safety performance was agreed as a key objective by all project partners from day one. To ensure that the planning, measurement and evaluation of the performance would be consistent right the way through the project, key performance indicators were also put in place.

In fact, health and safety performance was one of the key drivers behind the team's decision to maximise the value of off-site construction and its challenging target to reduce about 25% of the project cost through off-site construction.

On any one day at the main hospital site there can be as many as 1,500 workers. Though this may seem high, it is estimated that there is in excess of 40% less than on traditional builds. This has been made possible through the high volume of off-site manufacture of the M&E services provided by Bailey Building Services and the involvement of off-site specialists Panaloc.

In fact, more than 3,000 prefabricated service modules have been built at NG Bailey's off-site facility, which has in turn created a more efficient working environment and has had the knock-on effect of significantly reducing on site labour, waste and programme risk.

Since the project started its construction phase on site in 2006, the H&S team's objectives were to deliver a project with an outstanding Accident Incident Rate (AIR). Competency, co-ordination, culture and environmental sustainability became the cornerstone of a programme which would sustain a positive H&S culture throughout the lifespan of the project.

Competency

The St Helens and Knowsley NHS Hospital project holds a 100% CSCS card policy, to ensure that everyone involved has a basic knowledge of H&S. All workers must also attend an induction and in addition the H&S team runs safety meetings, employee consultations, toolbox talks, briefings on risk assessments, H&S bulletins and alerts and conducts near-miss reporting.

David Lynch, H&S manager for NG Bailey on the project, has also rolled out an IOSH Managing Safely Course. "The IOSH [Institution of Occupational Safety & Health] Managing Safely Course, of which there has been three since the project commenced, starts with an introduction and then spans seven separate modules covering assessing and controlling risks, understanding responsibilities, identifying hazards, investigating accidents and incidents, measuring performance and protecting the environment," he explains. "Delegates who successfully complete the written and practical assessments of the IOSH course are awarded with an accredited certificate in Managing Safely."

The overall project incorporates as much as 25% of the project by value of off-site manufacture, with key elements including the off-site manufacture of 800 bathroom, shower room and WC pods, in excess of 25,000m2 of façade and in excess of 3,000 M&E service modules. So, before NG Bailey's work started on site, workers attended sessions to gain practical experience in the installation of prefabricated modules. This off-site training enabled any associated risks to be considered and eliminated before work commenced on site.

"During these sessions one other primary factor for NG Bailey was to determine how best to lift the service modules in place, bearing in mind productivity and safety," Lynch continues. "A hand-operated electric-powered forklift was considered to be the most efficient piece of equipment to lift the modules into place. Instructions of how best to use it were then relayed on site in the form of mock-up exercises - to again reduce risks and improve productivity."

As part of the ongoing commitment to H&S on the project, various other training courses have been run across the supply chain, including Fire Safety Awareness Training, General Safety Awareness Training and the development of a Behavioral Safety Campaign 'Save a Life Today' (SALT), again by David Lynch from NG Bailey and Joe Collins of Taylor Woodrow.

Research shows that as many as two-thirds of accident victims on construction sites consider their accident to have been avoidable and that the main reason for the cause is due to one or a combination of behaviours. These include a lapse of attention, a genuine mistake, deliberate cutting of corners, simple rule breaking or through environmental factors - for example, poor maintenance or housekeeping.

SALT has been implemented to play on the attitude of those on site and target physiological perceptions to risk, making workers consider the knock-on effects that negative behaviours may have on others. The message is prevalent on the entire site and more than 100 managers and supervisors have attended presentations on the Behavioural Safety Campaign.

Co-ordination and culture

Pooling knowledge and experience through participation, commitment and involvement means health and safety becomes everybody's business. Including the entire supply chain leads to greater expertise, more support for each other and the development of a team with specialist knowledge. It also brings about cross-fertilisation with the sharing of good ideas and innovation, a safe and sound environment in which to work and reduced running costs.

Taylor Woodrow and its project partners, including NG Bailey, ensured health and safety by implementing key performance indicators.