While this project is still in-progress, this case study presents an illustration of how NSW Government can partner and collaborate with private sector to achieve innovative outcomes to improve the industry.
PROJECT OVERVIEW
The Concord Hospital redevelopment will deliver a state-of-the-art clinical service building and provide additional inpatient capacity and outpatient services.
Stage 1 also includes the demolition of the World War II ramp wards to provide a clear footprint for future redevelopment. The redevelopment builds on the hospital’s history and architectural significance to deliver new infrastructure for the growing local community.
Continuing Concord Hospital’s long-standing connection to veterans since it opened in 1941 as a Military Hospital, Sydney Local Health District is working with its partners to develop a unique model of care integrating a range of specialist services in the nation’s first National Centre for Veterans’ Healthcare.
Stage 1 will deliver a new Clinical Services Building including:
This case study provides an example of how Health Infrastructure (HI) is supporting action plan by:
INITIATIVES
‘A weekend for every worker’
Through research evidence, it is well known that there is persistently higher rates of serious mental health disorders and suicide in the construction industry compared to the general population and other occupations. Research has found that long work hours, practices of presenteeism and total availability have adverse impacts on worker wellbeing and participation of women in the industry.
To champion improved work practices, Roberts Pizzarotti (RP) has partnered with NSW Health Infrastructure (HI) to develop and implement a wellbeing intervention initiative of piloting five-day work week (Monday - Friday) during Stage 1 of the Concord Hospital Redevelopment project.
In order to measure the impacts of this initiative, the Australian Human Rights Institute at the University of New South Wales (the Institute), has been engaged to lead the research efforts in identifying key insights monitor and measure the benefits of the 5-day programme.
To ensure the initiative is successfully implemented and assessed, HI in partnership with RP, have put in place the following measures:
APPROACH
Stakeholder engagement
The project team within HI, with support from various in-house functional teams, worked diligently to ensure all requirements were met to ensure the Request for Tender (RFT) went to market in a timely manner. This allowed HI to undertake a detailed tender evaluation process to assess all tenderers. Additionally, rather than impose rigid project deliverables into the RFT, HI asked tenderers to advise how long the construction would take in their tender response. This enabled tenderers to propose alternative work arrangements to meet project deliverables, which subsequently led to the proposal of the five-day programme pilot.
Delivery processes
HI undertook several measures to ensure reasonable targets for project milestones were included in the project business case. This enabled scope for any innovative work practices to be negotiated during the sourcing phase of the project. Following award of contract, HI partnered closely with RP to negotiate the specific conditions relating to the five-day programme. RP have worked closely with sub-contractors to communicate the initiative and plan works including assessment of any emergent industrial relations implications and requirements. Additionally, key stakeholders such as the Institute and the programming consultant were engaged to support successful implementation, execution and assessment of the initiative.
Current status
The Project is currently in the construction delivery phase with Stage 1 expected to be completed by Q3 2021. HI will continue to partner closely with both RP and other key stakeholders to monitor progress and assess key insights from ongoing worker wellbeing surveys and workshops. Key learnings of the initiative will continue to be captured as the project progresses with ongoing collaboration initiatives planned to optimise outcomes for this and future projects within the HI portfolio.
OUTCOMES
Procure and manage projects in a more collaborative way
Through collaboration and a willingness from both RP and HI to better understand and champion innovative work practices within the construction industry, a five-day (Monday to Friday) work week was proposed by RP, negotiated and updated into the contract post tender. Specifically, no weekend work can commence on this project unless approved by the principal to undertake critical works related to:
To facilitate this initiative, additional preliminaries to cover an extended programme were also negotiated, agreed and updated into the contract. Furthermore, a programming consultant was also engaged by HI to track and monitor the efficiency of the five-day programme pilot against a standard six-day programme.
Increase industry diversity
Initial review of the current five-day programme compared to the six-day programmes received during tender indicate that to date milestones achieved have been reached in alignment with the six-day programme. Anecdotally, sub-contractors are reporting a positive response from their workers for the five-day working week which we are hoping to validate through the survey and interview process.
For more information, visit the Health Infrastructure webpage or contact the team at Health Infrastructure NSW.
Phone: (02) 9978 5402
