Work is well underway on the new £35m hospital at Merit's offsite manufacturing factory in Cramlington
Berwick Hospital is being built one year quicker compared to traditional construction methods by using offsite technology.
This approach offers a zero carbon emissions-design, class-leading lower energy consumption, enhanced infection control and is technically enabled for the future of health care.
Berwick's MP, Anne-Marie Trevelyan, and Blyth Valley MP, Ian Levy, recently visited the factory to see the start of the build of the 800+ pre-assembled modules (PAMs) and 17 UltraPODs® that will be delivered to site to form part of the state-of-the-art building.
They also received a demonstration of Merit's factory robot, just one of the Industry 4.0 initiatives in progress along with computer numerical control (CNC) technology, automation and digitalisation.
Tony Wells, CEO at Merit said: "It was great to welcome Rt Hon Anne-Marie Trevelyan MP and Ian Levy MP to our factory to show them the work being done on the region's newest hospital and to explain how different manufacturing processes are being used to improve productivity.
"We believe that on a larger scale, this solution will bring affordability to the NHS with hospitals being built significantly faster with cost certainty."
Rt Hon Anne- Marie Trevelyan, MP for Berwick-upon-Tweed said: "It's really exciting to see the work being done on Berwick's new hospital and it's amazing that this area of the country will be the first to benefit from this modern solution to healthcare."
Marion Dickson, Northumbria Healthcare's executive director for nursing, midwifery and allied health professionals and project lead said: "We're very impressed with Merit's offsite manufacturing capabilities which can fortunately bypass any bad weather and provide quicker solutions to the build of our new hospital."
Original source: Work underway on Berwick offsite hospital (pbctoday.co.uk)
