Patients benefit from £500,000 hospital car park upgrade

Patients are benefiting from a £500,000 upgrade to the car park at Sevenoaks Hospital in Kent, which has been completed by NHS Property Services.

The scheme was needed to address the poor condition of the surface, which was beyond its designed life span, and provided an opportunity to improve the layout to make it safer for users.

As owner of the site, NHS Property Services worked closely with the main provider of healthcare at the hospital, Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust, which supported the improvements.

The project involved:

• Full resurfacing of two car parks and laying a new surface dressing on the third
• Reconfiguring spaces and infrastructure to improve traffic flow through the site
• Creating marked pedestrian routes for patients
• Installing a step-free crossing point and improved walkway near the Spring House Children’s Centre.
• Relining work to slightly increase the size of the bays and provide additional space to manoeuvre
• Lighting improvements and drainage works

Alasdair White, Head of Construction Programme Management at NHS Property Services, said: “This is part of our work to invest in the NHS estate and the project has made a big difference to patients using the hospital. We’d like to thank our clinical colleagues for bearing with us during works.”

Fleur Cromarty, Head of Projects – Estates, at Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust, added: “We’re pleased NHS Property Services has carried out this work and patients have noticed the improvements to the surface and walkways.”

Project Manager Ben Davies, of Oander, said: “We kept the project on track through the snow and ice and phased the work, which was carried out at weekends, to ensure minimal disruption to patients.”