Dumfries & Galloway Royal Infirmary – A Between Glass Blinds Case Study

The new £212 million hospital will provide 344 single-bed en-suite rooms, which boast to be the largest single rooms in Scotland and feature floor to ceiling windows and an integrated nurse calling system.

The development will also house a combined assessment unit to manage emergency cases and bed allocation, theatres complex, critical care unit, women’s and children’s unit and outpatients department. The facility under main contractor Laing O’Rourke is set to open in December 2017.

The single bedded rooms were chosen due to a number of clear advantages, one of the key advantages of the single rooms is that it helps to promote privacy and dignity and enables staff to undertake personal care within a confidential environment. The single rooms also allow a reduction in cross-infection and helps to reduce levels of noise and disturbance for patients.

The most advanced technology, integral to the facility, will enable efficient and effective diagnostics and treatment for every patient. Staff will work in an environment that will enable them to maximise putting their skills, expertise and experience into practice to deliver the highest standard of care for patients.

Construction on the hospital began in March 2015 and will replace the original Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary, built in 1975. Permission has now been granted by the Royal Naming Team to transfer the name across to the new building and once construction is complete and the new facility open, the old hospital will be demolished.

The doors specified on the Dumfries project were AXIS-Automatic Flo-Motion doors, these were specifically designed for the new Alder Hey Children's Hospital to provide user friendly, full width, glazed bedroom and ward doors and their designed met all requirements for the Dumfries & Galloway Infirmary development.

Flo-Motion® doors feature recirculating ball guides on a special low resistance linear track with a damper mechanism. The door sets are fabricated using extruded aluminium profiles and include a self-supporting "goalpost" frame.

Ordinary blinds and curtains were not deemed a practical solution, 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 the project at Alder Hey.

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.

Both stylish and contemporary in appearance, the venetian Between Glass Blinds are easy to maintain with the blinds contained within the sealed unit safe from dust and dirt, BGB units were the ideal shading and privacy glazing solution for the project.

The hospital is due to be handed over to NHS Dumfries and Galloway next month (September 2017), and is expected to open to the public by the end of the year.

Client: Axis Automatic

Main contractor: Laing O’Rourke

Location: Dumfries

Total project costs: £212 million