Washbox checks into its fourth Queensland Hospital
We're pleased to be supporting John Holland on the major expansion of Princess Alexandra Hospital in Woolloongabba, continuing our growing involvement in some of Queensland’s most significant hospital projects.
The Princess Alexandra Hospital expansion is a major redevelopment of an operating tertiary hospital, with more than $748 million being invested to add four new floors above the existing emergency department, 249 inpatient beds, 13 cancer treatment bays, and expanded pharmacy and medical imaging facilities. (Metro South Health)
For Washbox, the project is also part of a much broader story. Princess Alexandra Hospital is now the third major Queensland public hospital project currently being delivered by John Holland where Washbox has been selected to manage trade washout, and the fourth major hospital project in Queensland overall, including the Cairns Hospital expansion being delivered by Hansen Yuncken.
That repeated adoption is particularly relevant in healthcare construction.
Hospitals place unusual demands on building services and the quality of completed infrastructure. Once operational, plumbing and drainage systems form part of a highly controlled clinical environment that needs to remain reliable, clean and serviceable for decades.
During construction and fitout, however, painters, plasterers, tilers and other finishing trades still need to wash tools and equipment. Without a dedicated washout process, paint, plaster, compounds, adhesives and fine solids can find their way into sinks and drainage infrastructure.
For an ordinary building, a partially obstructed pipe or residual construction material in a drainage system can be serious but not life threatening. For a hospital, the consequences can be considerably more serious.
These are facilities that need to transition from construction sites into critical healthcare environments, often while adjoining areas of the hospital remain operational. Avoiding unnecessary contamination of plumbing, reducing the risk of blockages and leaving building services in the condition intended at handover therefore carries particular value.
Washbox provides trades with a dedicated closed-loop washout system that recycles the washwater and captures the waste, keeping the process away from sinks and permanent plumbing. The same fundamental process is used across the Washbox range, with systems available in either manual or automated configurations depending on the needs of the project.
The environmental benefit is important, particularly on major public infrastructure projects where water conservation and responsible waste management should be considered throughout construction, but in healthcare the operational benefit is equally compelling.
It is about handing over a hospital with clean infrastructure, fewer avoidable risks hidden behind the walls, and one less legacy issue created during construction.
With Washbox now being used across four major Queensland hospital projects, including three with John Holland, we are encouraged to see managed trade washout becoming part of the way leading contractors approach healthcare construction.
In facilities designed to protect people's health for decades to come, it makes sense to take the same care with how they are built.
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