Barton Knight Contracting is undertaking the electrical works for a 16-week, project for the New Queen Elizabeth II (QE II) Hospital, in Welwyn Garden City, working with contractor Storm Building. New elective procedure rooms are under construction, consisting of procedure and block rooms, a patient recovery suite and associated rooms on behalf of East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust and developer Guildhouse UK Ltd.

The design-and-installation electrical programme, worth £200,000, includes a new UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply/Source). Barton Knight also supplying and installing new containment, data, air conditioning and lighting, plus new bedhead trunking in two recovery wards. 

Barton Knight was invited to tender due to its extensive experience in successfully delivering complex electrical programmes for the NHS, completed in live environments with minimum disruption to staff and patients.

The New QEII Hospital opened in 2015, replacing the original QEII Hospital which opened in 1963. It provides a range of outpatient clinics and services including blood tests, as well as an urgent treatment centre which is open every day. In 2022, it was designated as one of 40 new ‘community diagnostic centres’ across the country. The current works are part of a £2.4 million investment to create three new procedure rooms, split between the New QEII and Lister hospitals, designed to provide extra capacity for minor procedures, improving operating theatre productivity and supporting efforts to reduce waiting lists.

Speaking to MP for Welwyn Hatfield Grant Shapps last year, the CEO of the East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust Adam Sewell-Jones said: “[The] new procedure room at the New QEII… will allow for minor procedures to take place locally. This means we can more effectively use our main theatre space at Lister Hospital to treat people who are waiting for more serious operations.”[i]

[i] https://www.shapps.com/grant-shapps-meets-new-nhs-trust-ceo/