Completed projects

Mermaid Centre – Equipment Upgrade

The Mermaid Centre went through a 12-month equipment replacement and upgrade which finished on time and under budget in October 2023. All three mammography scanners were replaced with new state-of-the-art equipment. Space inside the Mermaid Centre was reconfigured to provide an extra ultrasound room, new and improved reporting and viewing rooms, and staff facilities. 

Throughout the project, a mobile scanner was located in the Mermaid car park to ensure service continuity and clinical capacity. Watch our Mermaid Project film to find out more. 

Critical Care Healing Garden

Our award-winning healing garden for the Critical Care Unit was funded entirely by charitable donation, following a fundraising campaign led by renowned explorer Robin Hanbury-Tenison and his wife Louella. Robin, who lives in Cornwall, believes that the healing garden at University Hospitals Plymouth saved his life after he contracted Covid-19 at the start of the pandemic in March 2020.  

Working with the ideas of Critical Care staff and patients, landscape design company Lavigne Lonsdale, (and construction partner, Cormac) created a beautiful yet practical healing garden. There is space for up to two hospital beds for patients to be supported by Critical Care Unit therapists, nurses, medical staff and families and carers. It is also among the first critical care gardens in hospitals in England where medical gasses are piped directly to the garden. This allows patients to stay in the garden for longer than would be possible with a bottled medical gas supply. 

Read our news story about the opening of the garden to find out more. Within a week of the garden opening in September 2023, it won a Patient Experience Network National Award in the Environment of Care category. The healing garden also won Community Engagement Project of the Year at the national, and highly prestigious Construction News Awards in September 2024.

Watch the BBC Spotlight coverage of the opening of the Critical Care Healing Garden.  

MRI and Oncology Unit – New Build

The new MRI Suite and Haematology and Oncology Unit opened in May 2023, on time and on budget. This three-storey building is home to the Trelawny Scanning Suite, Lowen Ward and an Ambulatory Emergency Day Care Unit for oncology patients.  

Two state-of-the-art Philips MRI scanners have been installed (with room for a third), complete with ambient experiences and special visual effects designed to keep patients calm during their treatments. The ground floor is home to four ultrasound rooms, consultant rooms, and a dedicated in-bed waiting area. The new building allows the relocation of existing MRI services to a purpose-built unit on the lower ground floor. Co-locating the MRI scanners next to other imaging services in Trelawny improves continuity of care and supports a more efficient imaging workforce. 

Lowen Ward is found on the first floor. The ward has 24 beds (from 18 previously). Eight of the rooms are individually ventilated to ensure the highest standards of care and infection prevention and control. On the first floor is the Ambulatory Emergency Care Day Unit to support acute oncology patients, a palliative care suite with a safe and private sensory courtyard garden, and an Iodine Therapy Suite used for specialist treatment. Outside, a shrubbery has been introduced along with a bug hotel and garden. 

Since opening, the MRI and Oncology Unit has won numerous awards including:

• Michelmores Property Awards: Winner in the Over £20m category
• Southwest Constructing Excellence: Winner in the Infrastructure Project of the Year
• Southwest Constructing Excellence: Highly Commended in the Innovation category for the JETS vacuum drainage solutions.
• Concrete Society, Southwest Awards: Project of the Year

Penventinnie Lane Houses demolition

This was the first enabling project to be finished for the Women and Children’s Hospital programme. It was completed on time and on budget. The area created by the demolition will form the constructors’ compound for the Women and Children’s Hospital.   

Trees will be planted in the garden area behind the compound. The magnolia memorial tree stays in place and is being well looked after. Also planted nearby is a hazel, marking the Diamond Jubilee of HM Queen Elizabeth II, and kindly donated by the Duchy of Cornwall. 

Tremenel Unit

The Tremenel Unit opened in two phases. The first floor was opened, (initially as Wheal Vor Ward) in December 2021, and then in November 2022, the ground floor of the Tremenel Unit was fully opened. 

The Unit’s upper floor now provides extra temporary relocation space for wards and services displaced during the long-term reconfiguration of the Treliske Hospital site.  

On the ground floor, the Tremenel Unit is the permanent home for Patient Blood Management Services and the Frailty Same Day Emergency Care Ward. 

Sunrise Centre – CT Scanner Replacement

The Sunrise Centre opened its newly updated CT scanning room in November 2022, following the installation of a brand new “Big Bore” radiotherapy scanner and a three-month refit of the CT scanning and control rooms. 

It is the only CT scanner in Cornwall dedicated to planned radiotherapy treatments for cancer patients across the county. All radiotherapy referrals in Cornwall lead to the Sunrise Centre and the “Big Bore” where, after a high-precision CT scan, patients are provided with a comprehensive, accurate treatment plan. 

The new state-of-the-art CT scanner, provided by Philips, offers superb imaging and simulation solutions, to improve both patient and clinical experience. 

As part of the refit, the new CT scanning room was fitted out with a back-lit virtual skylight and coloured room lighting to improve the patient experience, following a successful bid to the Sunrise Appeal. The CT control room received a refresh and re-design to improve the staff environment. 

Children’s Garden of Freedom

The Garden of Freedom has replaced the original children’s garden and play area on the Treliske Hospital site. This garden was removed in 2020 to make way for the construction of the Tremenel Unit. 

The new garden is located behind Wheal Prosper Ward and next to the new Impact building (behind the Princess Alexandra Wing). This is a quiet, safe area, away from traffic and only a short walk from the maternity and paediatric wards. Innovative and playful signage has been put in place to help patients and their families and carers find the new space. 

Designed by local company Earth Wright Ltd, the garden has been specially created for children and their parents, families, and carers to enjoy during treatment, or whilst visiting, the Royal Cornwall Hospital. 

The design had input from our specialist play team, families, and patients, and considers the accessibility and sensory needs of young people. Displaying more than 200 plants, shrubs, herbs and trees, the area has begun to fill with natural insect wildlife. A play hut sits at the heart of the garden. 

Kier Construction worked with Cornwall College Camborne students to create a colour-pencil-themed bench and objects of interest including bug hotels, metal insects and decorative copper hanging items across the garden area.  

Cornish fashion company Seasalt designed and created an enchanted woodland-themed mural on the wall facing into the garden, which brings to life creatures such as stags, foxes, rabbits and owls, alongside secret fairy houses that are situated along a winding path for children to discover. Other donations were made by Redruth-based SJ Andrews, SeeTech, Kier, and Gloweth Ltd of Truro.  

A successful fundraising campaign has already facilitated the addition of a basket swing and wall games. More specialist and accessible play equipment will be added as further fundraising allows.  

Emergency Department Expansion

A new, spacious, and modern Resuscitation Unit opened to patients in November 2020 providing the Emergency Department (ED) team with high-quality, hi-tech facilities to help care for patients with the most acute and life-threatening conditions. 

With four bays and two isolation cubicles, the new single-storey unit is a significant improvement on the smaller original unit built in the early 1990s. The extra physical accommodation provides space for clinical staff to work quickly and effectively in busy times, particularly during winters, summer holidays and, in recent times, local increases in coronavirus cases. 

In May 2021, finishing on time and on budget, the Rapid Assessment and Treatment area (RATs) was officially opened. 

RATs is where patients first arrive when brought in by ambulance. They are met by experienced nursing staff who conduct rapid investigations before the patient is looked at by the doctor. The area has four treatment bays and is a purpose-built facility where staff can work swiftly and safely to deliver a much better patient experience. View an interactive walkthrough of the project.

Newlyn Theatre 14 – Equipment Replacement

• Start date: May 2024 
• End date: September 2024 

This project replaced the interventional radiology equipment and refurbished Theatre 14 within the Newlyn Unit. The project was an upgrade of equipment to ensure the continuity of outstanding patient care. Watch the project film which explains the importance of this vital facility to the Royal Cornwall Hospital.