Forest of Dean Community Hospital

Speller Metcalfe was contracted to construct the new community hospital at Cinderford in the Forest of Dean.

The £26 million project was delivered on behalf of Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust.

A 24-bed-in-patient unit is included in the two-storey hospital alongside provision for X-ray, dental and other key services.

The multi-million-pound community facility replaces two outdated hospitals in Cinderford and Lyndsey, as well as expanding and improving existing medical service provision.

A range of measures were put in place to improve energy efficiency and lower the environmental impact of the building, which has been constructed to the sustainable BREEAM Excellent standard. The building is immersed into the surrounding forest environment through its positioning lower into the ground and the grey and green cladding.

Over 100 new native trees have been planted throughout the project duration to extend the dormouse habitat and ecologically friendly lighting has been used at the hospital entrance to avoid disrupting the existing bat flight path.

The project was procured through the Gloucestershire County Councils Major Construction Works Framework.