Royal Bournemouth’s BEACH awards healthcare communications contract

Royal Bournemouth Hospital’s BEACH (Births, Emergency care, And, Critical care and child Health) building has awarded a contract to Ascom for the supply and installation of healthcare communication technology.

Set to open in autumn 2024, the BEACH building forms part of a £250m transformation by the University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust. Once opened, the 23,000m² six-storey building will provide a new maternity unit, children’s unit, an enhanced emergency department, a 30-bed capacity critical care unit and a purpose-designed pathology lab.

Ascom will be working in partnership with electrical contractor W Portsmouth & Co. It will provide its end-to-end digital smart nurse call solution, including Myco 3 smartphones with mobile attack alarm software and near-real-time location tracking, plus fixed panic attack alarm technology.

In addition, an infant tracking system will be installed by the company. The system enables staff to monitor the movements of all babies under its care. It uses infant safe tags complete with anti-tamper technology which are RF and WiFi enabled. The system will integrate with the CCTV and security doors of the hospital.

David Walters, senior account manager for Ascom, said: “When it’s completed the emergency department alone at the BEACH Building will be larger than the current facilities in Poole and at the Royal Bournemouth Hospital combined.”

He added: “… the emergency department alone at the BEACH Building will be larger than the current facilities in Poole and at the Royal Bournemouth Hospital combined.”

The creation of the BEACH building will make the Royal Bournemouth Hospital the major emergency hospital for Dorset. It also marks the first time that the NHS has used AI technology to support the construction of a new site.

Ascom and W. Portsmouth & Co. have previously worked together on another flagship NHS project at Chase Farm Hospital in Enfield, part of the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust.