Blacktown Mount Druitt Hospital

As an urban hospital with high demands from a growing population, BMDH will provide high-level inpatient and outpatient services, with a capacity to manage complex patients who require specialist acute care.

Jacobs was initially appointed to provide architectural services to provide:

• A new 32,000m² seven story clinical services building at Blacktown Hospital, including:
  • A new integrated cancer care center.
  • Three levels of inpatient units consisting of cardiology, CCU, cancer care, respiratory, rehabilitation, stroke and aged care IPUs.
  • New pharmacy, pathology and antenatal departments.
• Extensive ICU, emergency and urgent care refurbishments.
• Oral health, rehabilitation and sub-acute mental health units at both Blacktown and Mt Druitt.
• A new multi-story carpark at Blacktown Hospital.

Jacobs was later engaged to undertake the Stage 2 of the expansion, valued at $400 million. The Stage 2 Acute Services Building will comprise new Emergency, ICU, Operating Theaters and Birthing and Maternity departments.

An updated identity for BMDH is forged through the unique character of the Hospital Street and the façades of the new building. The extensive use of bright colored glass and natural materials gives the building a friendly and open personality appropriate to the diverse and multicultural Blacktown community.

A unique patient-centered inpatient design that provides smaller virtually ‘self-contained’ pods to minimize staff travel while placing staff and support resources in close physical and visual proximity to patients so that time spent in direct patient care is maximized.

Robust testing of service options with stakeholders for future flexibility and suitability of the expansion strategy (Blacktown Hospital Stage 2). Long term criteria led to a number of innovative design strategies, including a new second vehicle entrance from Blacktown Road to provide the capacity for future expansion. A well thought through staging strategy that coordinated construction activity and minimized disruption to Hospital service delivery. Integration of dedicated project management and document control resources allowed the Jacobs team to consistently meet challenging deadlines with agreed standards of documentation.

The Jacobs team rationalized the bathroom design for the facility towards the end of the design process. Jacobs worked with specialist modular subcontractors, modifying bathroom design to ensure program and quality certainty. The central energy facility was located away from the CSB and constructed as part of the multi-level car park, facilitating servicing and providing future expansion capacity. The feasibility of cogeneration plant was studied as part of the design process. The fenestration design is based on the results of thermal energy modelling, minimizing solar gain and cooling costs while preserving views out of the building. Generous natural daylighting creates a bright spacious interior.