BetweenGlassBlinds Case Study: Altnagelvin Hospital

Client: Axis Automatic & CW Fields

Healthcare Trust: Western Health and Social Care Trust

Location: Londonderry, Northern Ireland

Total project costs: £73 million

Altnagelvin Hospital is the main hospital for the North West of Northern Ireland. It provides services to the city of Derry as well as County Londonderry, and offers the most comprehensive medical services outside Belfast in Northern Ireland.

The £73.5m project at the Altnagelvin site will incorporate six inpatient ward areas, a new main entrance to the hospital and relocation of the car parking facilities.

The Altnagelvin project will see the construction of a new North Wing Ward Block to replace the ageing tower block wards and major upgrade works to Day Surgery Theatres. 

The North Block development is located within the heart of Altnagelvin Hospital, and will provide circa 14000m2 of new inpatient ward accommodation, including 144 single occupancy bed spaces and associated ward support facilities.

The North Wing building is scheduled to complete in December 2019. 

An additional project is also underway to provide new Day Surgery Theatres at Altnagelvin Hospital. This separate £3.3m project, which is planned to become operational from January 2018, will involve the refurbishment of existing theatre space and redesign of services. It will provide additional day case theatre capacity to address immediate theatre pressures.

The new facilities are important to ensure that patients have access to high quality health care delivered in a modern clinical and therapeutic environment.

BetweenGlassBlinds

BetweenGlassBlinds are noted for their innovative, versatile and maintenance-free integrated blinds which are ideal for healthcare environments as they meet the requirements for clinical infection control. The blinds also allowed the user full control of privacy.

Conventional blind systems were deemed unsuitable for the project because they gather dust and dirt and require regular cleaning, they are damaged easily therefore not providing a satisfactory life-span and they do not meet the requirements for clinical infection control.

It was decided Venetian blinds had to be integrated into the doors for infection control and to avoid expensive cleaning and maintenance so AXIS-Automatic contacted Between Glass Blinds, whom they’d used and been impressed with on previous hospital projects.

The Between Glass Blinds integrated blinds are hermetically sealed between two panes of glass with magnetic controls to avoid an “infection bridge” into the glazing gap, which protects the blind from damage, dirt and grime. Meaning the blind is hygienically excellent, never needs cleaning and is completely maintenance free.

Over 130 Between Glass Blinds Tilt only panels were supplied on the project. Around 90 of the units were motorised, these were supply only to AXIS Automatic and were fitted into bedroom doors. Between Glass Blinds motorised units are the first patented system with wireless actuator with magnetic transmission, they don’t require hard wiring and are applicable to any thickness of glass.

The remaining 40 Between Glass Blinds tilt only units were magnetically operated, these were supply only to CW Fields on the project and were fitted in to screens. Between Glass Blinds magnetic units are completely cordless and operated via powerful, neat and unobtrusive sliding magnetic blocks located around the perimeter of the unit.

The magnets control the operation of the blinds with ease, allowing the service user to tilt the blinds in one slick and easy motion with its functional and stylish design. This gives the user full control when privacy is needed or to reduce glare and sunlight keeping a room at a more moderate temperature.