Today’s care homes are almost unrecognisable from their outdated predecessors and bring unique construction challenges requiring a close working knowledge of the sector, from national care standards through to latest construction costs.
Projex has been advising on a new care village project in Yorkshire that through re-design, working with and developing the client’s operational brief and driving efficiencies in layout design, could see savings of around 20% from the original anticipated cost of £7.5 million.
Healthcare director, Steve Morphet, says that the potential savings demonstrate the value of employing a construction team experienced in the sector, ideally including them as early as possible in the process. He explains:
“Projex was asked to review existing design proposals and contractor costs ahead of starting on site.
“Both architect and contractor had done a great job but didn’t have the detailed and recent experience in healthcare that we can provide thanks to our current involvement in the delivery of 1,000 new build beds.
“Our detailed and relevant understanding of the sector enables us to drive efficiencies without compromising on quality and we were able to improve elements of the layout and overall requirements, as well as putting more realistic and latest figures next to building costs.”
Projex already works with a number of leading, award-winning healthcare operators including the first UK dementia provider to achieve an ‘outstanding’ inspection from the CQC and the multi award winning Chocolate Works Care Village, providing project management, cost consultancy and principal designer services.
The company’s experience also includes surveys on 5,000 beds across the UK ranging from portfolios to major individual care homes, with due diligence advice including the co-ordination of M&E services, fire insurance inspections and revaluations, statutory compliance surveys and health and safety audits.
Steve adds: “We have the experience to be able to benchmark costs and evaluate all aspects of the design and build process and can bring this to any project whether new build, expansion or refurbishment.”
