For immediate
release
8 July 2005
IAC STARS
IN MODERNISATION OFSCOTTISH AUDIOLOGY SERVICES
IAC's audiology suite for Prince's Gate hospital in
Hamilton Scotland - in a curved building 2005 June |
A review of audiology
services in Scotland carried out by the Public Health Institute Scotland
in 2001 highlighted the need for radical improvement to bring them in
line with the rest of the UK. A 4-year, £30m modernisation programme
was launched in 2003.
New facilities
needed nationwide
Aside from training
more staff to provide quality services for the 750,000 people in Scotland
with hearing impairment, ‘proper accommodation’ was going
to be required. So, around £3m was earmarked for the supply of top-class
audiometric testing facilities to hospital sites around the country, each
to be accompanied by related accommodation. These would all need to be
Disability Discrimination Act-compliant whether upgrades or new build.
Enter leading audiometric facility manufacturer, IAC of Winchester.
Projects totalling
£1/2m
Jason Saunders
is Business Manager, Medical & Life Sciences at IAC: “As
one of the world’s leading suppliers of acoustically-controlled
audiology facilities, we have supplied many of the top hospitals and teaching
institutions throughout Europe and the USA. As part of the Scottish modernisation
programme so far, we’ve provided new audiology facilities for adult
and paediatric testing on seven sites across Scotland to a total value
of over £1/2m.” The sites are: Crosshouse Hospital in Kilmarnock
for NHS Ayrshire & Arran; Prince’s Gate in Hamilton, Lanarkshire
Primary Care NHS Trust; Gilbert Bain Hospital in Lerwick Shetland and
Peterhead Community Hospital for NHS Grampian, and Aboyne and Inverurie
hospitals and Buckie’s Seafield hospital – these latter four
projects all share a similar profile.
Crosshouse Hospital,
NHS Ayrshire and Arran
The new state-of-the-art
Audiology unit at Crosshouse Hospital is the flagship project among all
these undertaken by IAC. Taking just six months to complete, it was actually
the first in the entire modernisation programme and comprised £220,000-worth
of improvements carried out in two stages. Firstly, 4 purpose-built test
rooms were built that included a hi-tech paediatric test facility. Next
came comprehensive refurbishment and
expansion of their existing poor accommodation into in a high-grade suite
of acoustically-treated consulting rooms, each with integral, individual
air conditioning systems.
Deputy Minister
for Health Rhona Brankin, Member of the Scottish Parliament officially
opened the new high-spec department in December 2004. She said: "I
am very impressed by the modern facilities and the state-of-the-art equipment
that is available to patients.”
Adrian Carragher,
long involved with the British Association of Audiological Technicians
is Head of Audiology Services at the Trust. At the time
of opening the facility he said: “At the heart of this redevelopment
was the need to build modern, fit-for-purpose facilities to allow the
department to deliver a modern and continually modernising service to
patients.”
The other major project
for IAC in Scotland was undertaken at Prince’s Gate in Hamilton.
The installation of the 4 custom-designed audiometric testing rooms –
2 paediatric and 2 adult – was particularly challenging. Shaun
Moore, Project Manager with IAC, co-ordinated the installation:
“The striking, hilltop building to host the new testing rooms not
only has curved walls but no lifts or option to use a crane. This meant
that all the audiometric facilities’ components had to be manhandled
up to the second floor of the building. We also fitted each testing room
with a stand-alone air conditioning system, to accommodate the varying
needs of those using the different facilities.”
Anna Blair
is Head of Audiology Services, NHS Lanarkshire. She said: “I
am delighted with the facility we now have. IAC handled the project well
from beginning to end with great communications with the department at
all times. Overall it was a challenging job given the crescent shape of
the department and the fact that several supporting pillars in the space
could not be moved. Despite these constraints, IAC did a great job and
on time and within budget.”
Testing booths
for four community hospitals
Audiometric testing
booths were all installed at the hospitals of Peterhead, Aboyne, Inverurie,
and Seafield. Each comprised IAC’s standard booth with interior
skirting, attractive stretch fabric on interior walls, and electrical
dado trunking. For the year round comfort of patients and clinicians IAC
also fitted air conditioning in the host rooms which house the booths
themselves.
Sophisticated
paediatric facility for Shetland outpost
Scottish outpost,
Shetland is home to the most recent Scottish modernisation project that
IAC has completed. As well as a smaller community hospital project at
Peterhead, the NHS's Grampian's NHS Shetland Gilbert Bain hospital in
Lerwick was supplied with a purpose-built paediatric audiometric room.This
sophisticated room-within-a-room facility was fitted with specialist Visual
Response Audiometry and speaker socket cabling; it also has an integrated
2-way intercom system, a DDA-compliant entrance lobby and air conditioning
throughout.
Chris Brown
is Head of Clinical Physiology with NHS Grampian Shetland, and
Audiology services are part of his remit. “Prior to this refurbishment
programme we could only offer patients in Shetland 15 days’ service
a year, using an older-design mobile booth on castors.
“Having our
own brand new facility manned by a full time audiologist is going to make
a huge difference to the local community. I have to say that IAC has done
an exceptionally good job, with their team fitting in so well, and keeping
us informed every step of the way, something that we really appreciate.
I couldn’t fault the job done by IAC’s foreman – the
facility is a overall a wonderful job!”
New acoustic floors
reduce costs
“The NHS is
keen to purchase high quality at minimum cost, and so extend its purchasing
power,” says IAC’s Jason Saunders. “So, with this in
mind, we’ve developed a new, lower-cost acoustic floor option for
their audiology facilities. This option offers alternative, but equally
high-performance materials and floor mounts. Now hospitals nationwide
can have audiology facilities of high-spec acoustic performance at more
competitive price levels and we’re now actively bidding for further
Scottish modernisation projects.” A free, no obligation site appraisal
by IAC’s acoustical engineering team is available to all hospitals
considering audiology facility upgrades.
Further information
on IAC’s audiology booths and suites can be found at www.iacl.co.uk
ENDS
For further media
information please contact Sally Davis on 023 9266 1600 sally@theprdepartment.co.uk
Editor’s
notes:
Four high resolution,
high quality images of IAC’s audiology suite for Prince’s
Gate hospital, Hamilton are available by right-click download from the
Photo Library in the News section of this site or by request from sally@theprdepartment.co.uk
Tel 023 9266 1600. (Additional images are also available.)
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