It's taken a little bit longer than we hoped but being quite a major project there have been many hoops to jump through and many obstacles that stalled us along the way.  However, we are so pleased to say that with support from many people - on 14 March 2022 we have broken ground.

A local building contractor very kindly came out, quoted and started the work to create the bases for the pods within a week. This was a huge ask for them to meet our timescales but their understanding of our plans made sure they went above and beyond to get the work done.  On 15 March, Fort Building Supplies will be delivering the materials needed for our bases, from early on in the project they offered us what we needed and have been supportive ever since.

Stage one is the bases -

They are underway and should be completed by the end of this week.

The staff are so excited as you can see from all their comments when hearing work was starting this week:

“That is really good news!! Fantastic!”

“Wow they look amazing!”

“Absolutely amazing work! Thank you for sticking at it.”

“Well done to everyone involved, amazing work, can’t wait to see them installed”

“Well done for all your hard work!”

“Yay well done guys”

“They look amazing, Having that space will make such a difference to staff, patients and families! Cannot wait to have them installed”

Stage 2 will be the installation of the pods -

Ornate Garden buildings and Liberty Garden Buildings will be on site on 31 March to do this. We hope the weather stays very much on our side too.

 

With the help of NHS Property services, Semperion and GFM working alongside Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust to get everything done behind the scenes we made it to have these much needed additions to the ward in place by the end of March 2022.

All of this would not possible without the support of Oxford Health Charity and NHS Charities Together. The morale boost for patients and staff is completely priceless and we all can't wait to see them in place.

Watch this space for stage two.