Milestone reached for St. David’s Foundation Hospice Care

Construction of the £3m St. David’s Foundation Hospice Care day hospice and chemotherapy outreach clinic in Newport has reached a key project milestone.

A topping out ceremony marking the completion of the steel frame was held on site at Blackett Avenue, Malpas, Newport. The new hospice, being built by Wales & West construction firm opco, is now expected to be ready for occupation within six to eight months.

The state of the art centre,  when completed, will offer traditional day hospice activities together with complementary therapies such as art therapy, children’s support services, carers groups, bereavement groups.

A consultant in palliative medicine clinics and a chemotherapy outreach clinic will also be provided within the new day centre hospice at Blackett Avenue, Malpas, Newport.

Emma Saysell, Chief Executive of St David’s Foundation, said the hospice at home charity is indebted to the Welsh Assembly Government and Newport City Council for their financial support for the project. She said the hospice is pleased to be working with opco on the project.

Mrs Saysell said: “This marvellous new day hospice which we’re creating here in Malpas, Newport, will mark the beginning of a new era, after 33 years, in the history of St. David’s Foundation. We’re absolutely thrilled to at last to see this fabulous facility taking shape and which will soon be available for use by the people of Newport.”

Mrs Saysell, who confirmed that the hospice’s current headquarters at Cambrian House, St John’s Road, Newport, is to be sold, said: “The new day hospice will play a very significant part in the lives of our
patients. There has been no day hospice in Newport since 1998 and this fantastic new centre will enable us to support our patients and their families through what can be a very difficult time.

“The limitations of our patients’ illness can make it very tricky for them to travel for treatment and so a badly needed facility such as this that we now have her at Malpas in Newport is truly wonderful.”

opco Managing Director Nigel Coulter said: “We are proud to be delivering such a significant building for St David’s Foundation.

“opco has built up a wealth of experience in completing a variety of projects for the health care sector over recent months and so we were particularly delighted to be invited to work with St. David’s Foundation Hospice Care to deliver this extremely important day hospice centre for the people of Newport.”

 “The St David’s Foundation day hospice is the latest project in a string of similar health related developments opco is and has been involved with over recent months. These projects include a £2.4m scheme in Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire, the £1.25m Gelligaer Medical Centre, in Caerphilly and a £2.4m medical centre in Glastonbury.”

The St David’s Foundation contract is due to be completed in 35 weeks and to achieve a BREEAM rating of Very Good. The new centre, served by 33 car parking spaces, will be equipped and open by late spring 2012.  Architects for the building are KKE Architects, engineers Steve Morgan Associates mechanical and electrical engineers Whitehead Building Services and BREEAM consultants AECOM Building Engineers.

opco has a forward order book of some £40m and employs 70 staff from its offices in Cardiff and Exeter.