Maternity unit, Reading

For Oxford Regional Hospital Board

A. L. Arschavir

Architects in charge: J. D. Regan, J. Knott

The maternity unit will be the specialist obstetric and special care baby unit for Reading and its catchment area, the population to be served by 1975 being estimated at 400,000.

In September 1965 the unit was selected for an experiment initiated by the Ministry of Health covering two principles of work within the construction industry, namely:

The use of industrialized building techniques in the construction of a hospital.

The use of a negotiated form of tendering.

The brief required that:

Over-riding consideration be given to ensuring the maximum safety for the mother and baby, through the provision of the best working conditions and equipment for the staff and a reassuring and pleasing atmosphere.
The unit should be planned to enable it to function efficiently with the minimum.

The antenatal clinic should provide for approximately 80 new and 240 total attendances a week. The design basis should be that people and service are brought to the patient.
The in-patient accommodation should comprise 120 beds and supporting services with no marked segregation of antenatal and postnatal wards. Procedures requiring the highest medical and nursing skills should be grouped on one floor to be known as the Acute Floor.
The special care baby unit should provide for 36 cots, together with provision for extension to meet an expected increase in workload resulting from improved perinatal mortality figures.

The theatre suite and special care baby unit should be planned on the 'clean zone' principle. The solution adopted comprises a floor of precast inverted trough sections spanning across the building in three bays and supported on precast beam sections running longitudinally only. The r.c. columns being of fairly simple form are constructed in situ, thus simplifying the problems of connections and jointing. The trough sections were selected because their use gives the maximum amount of space in the engineering services void below, and the thin table of the trough section enables service openings and holes to be provided with the minimum amount of difficulty.

Architectural Design, April 1966, p. 188